Sand: A natural and potential catalyst in renowned Friedel Craft's acylation of aromatic compounds

The aim of this work is to develop a cheap and green chemical process and this paper describes the catalytic commotion of locally collected sand in Friedel–Craft's Acylation of aromatic compounds like benzene, anisole, aniline, naphthalene and phenol etc. The sand consists of silica and alumina as analyzed by means of EDAX and acts as a green Lewis acid. The catalyst was also characterized by using BET, SEM, and XRD techniques.     

QoS in Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks: A Layered and Cross-Layered Approach

The emergence of wireless multimedia sensor networks (WMSN) has given birth to several civilian as well as defense applications. Some of the interesting applications employing low cost sensor nodes to manipulate rich multimedia content include traffic monitoring, border surveillance, smart homes, environment and habitat monitoring. Unlike the traditional sensor networks which are aimed at maximizing network lifetime by decreasing energy utilization, the main objective of WMSNs is optimized delivery of multimedia content along with energy efficiency. Multimedia communications in WMSNs, has stringent delay and high bandwidth requirement as compared to scalar data transfer in WSNs. Fulfilling these constraints in resource and energy constrained WMSNs is a huge challenge. In WMSNs, each layer of the protocol stack is responsible and fully involved in providing QoS guarantees. There is a need for new schemes at each layer of the protocol stack- from advanced coding techniques that reduce encoder complexity and achieve maximum compression to dynamic routing and MAC protocols that provide service differentiation and reduce end-to-end latency. In wireless sensor networks, where all layers have dependency on each other, QoS guarantees are possible through the cross layer interaction of different layers. This paper gives an overview of the different existing layered schemes in WMSNs, followed by a discussion on the significance and efficiency gains that can be achieved from cross layer interactions in WMSNs along with the review of the existing cross layer approaches. Finally, we identify the open research issues which have not been adequately addressed so far.     

Effect of Heat Exposure on Activity Degradation of Enzymes in Mango Varieties Sindri,SB Chaunsa,and Tommy Atkins during Drying

Mango has been described as a valuable source of nutrients and enzymes that are beneficial to human health. Drying at different temperatures not only affects the nutritional properties but can also contribute to the degradation of valuable enzymes in dried fruit. The novelty of this paper is to investigate the quality of hot air dried mango in terms of activity retention of the heat-sensitive enzymes (HSE). For this, HSE was first screened in fresh mango flesh of the variety Samar Bahisht (SB) Chaunsa. Later, the combined effect of different drying temperatures (40 °C, 50 °C, 60 °C, 70 °C, and 80 °C) and air velocities (1.0 ms⁻¹ and 1.4 ms⁻¹) on the activity retention of HSE in dried mango slices of the varieties Sindri, SB Chaunsa, and Tommy Atkins were investigated. The results showed that the drying temperature had a significant impact on the degradation of HSE, while at the same time some influence of the air velocity was also observed. Drying at 40 °C and an air velocity of 1.4 ms⁻¹ retained more HSE compared to those samples dried at higher temperatures. The least retention of HSE was found in samples dried at 80 °C.     

Determination of elements in Hunza River sediment by k 0 instrumental neutron activation analysis

This paper presents elemental data of sediment samples and its analysis methodology. The samples were collected from Central Karakoram—an unexplored region in Pakistan. Surface sediment samples (0–10 cm) were collected from 9 different locations along the Hunza River in Central Karakorum at an average altitude of 1,561 m covering almost 100 km length along the river. Samples were analysed by the k ₀-insturmental neutron activation analysis and the activation constant method for 34 elements (Al, As, Ba, Ca, Ce, Co, Cr, Cs, Dy, Eu, Fe, Ga, Hf, K, La, Mg, Mn, Na, Nd, Rb, Ru, Sb, Sc, Se, Sm, Sr, Ta, Tb, V, Yb, Zn, Zr, Th and U). The analysis methodology was discussed with important sources of nuclear and fission product interferences. The important components of uncertainties identified were the k ₀-factor, Q ₀-factor, detector efficiency and counting statistics. The methodology was validated by analyzing the IAEA-S-7 (soil) and IAEA-SL-1 (lake sediment) reference materials. The mass fraction data was explored by principal component analysis. Measured elemental mass fractions were compared with the similar data from other locations of the world. It was shown that anthropogenic activities have little influence on the elemental distribution in the sediment.     

Congruence-Simple Semirings

Several classes of congruence-simple semirings are characterized and various further examples are constructed. Among others, it is shown that every congruence-simple semiring fits into one of the following three classes: additively idempotent semirings, additively cancellative semirings, additively nil-semirings of index 2.     

Label-free imaging of cell attachment with photonic crystal enhanced microscopy

We introduce photonic crystal enhanced microscopy (PCEM) as a label-free biosensor imaging technique capable of measuring cell surface attachment and attachment modulation. The approach uses a photonic crystal optical resonator surface incorporated into conventional microplate wells and a microscope-based detection instrument that measures shifts in the resonant coupling conditions caused by localized changes in dielectric permittivity at the cell-sensor interface. Four model systems are demonstrated for studying cancer cells, primary cardiac muscle cells, and stem cells. First, HepG2/C3 hepatic carcinoma cells were cultured and observed via PCEM in order to characterize cell adhesion in the context of growth and locomotion. Second, Panc-1 pancreatic cancer cells were used to verify that cell attachment density decreases in response to staurosporine, a drug that induces apoptosis. Third, we used PCEM to confirm the influence of integrin-mediated signaling on primary neonatal cardiomyocyte growth and development. Rounded cardiomyocytes consistently showed decreased cell attachment density as recorded via PCEM, while spreading cells exhibited greater attachment strength as well as increased contractility. Finally, PCEM was used to monitor the morphological changes and extracellular matrix remodeling of porcine adipose-derived stem cells subjected to a forced differentiation protocol. Each of these experiments yielded information regarding cell attachment density without the use of potentially cytotoxic labels, enabling study of the same cells for up to several days.     

Effect of alkyl chain length, head group and nature of the surfactant on the hydrolysis of 1,3-benzoxazine-2,4-dione and its derivatives

The alkaline hydrolysis of carsalam (2H-1,3-benzoxazine-2,4(3H)-dione), denoted as I, and its N-substituted derivatives i.e., N-methyl-1,3-benzoxazine-2,4-dione (II) and N-benzoyl-1,3-benzoxazine-2,4-dione (III) was studied spectrophotometrically at physiological temperature. The rate of hydrolysis was found to be independent on the substrate concentration. In case of I, the reaction was fractional order with respect to [OH(-)] while for II and III, reaction obeyed the first order kinetics. Effect of cationic surfactants with varying hydrophobic chains (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, CTAB, tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide, TTAB and dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide, DTAB) and with different head-group (cetyl pyridinium chloride, CPC) and anionic surfactant (sodium dodecyl sulfate, SDS) was also seen on the rate of alkaline hydrolysis of the carsalam and its derivatives. Cationic surfactants first catalyzed the rate of hydrolysis at lower concentrations followed by the inhibition at higher concentrations. The length of the alkyl chain had remarkable effect on the catalytic efficiency of the surfactants. Similarly N-substitution on substrate also increased the catalysis by micelles. The anionic surfactant SDS inhibited the rate of hydrolysis at all of the concentrations studied. The catalysis by cationic micelles followed by inhibition was treated in terms of the pseudophase ion-exchange model, while for the inhibition by SDS micelles the Menger-Portnoy model was used to fit the data. The effect of salts (NaCl, NaBr and (CH(3))(4)NBr) was also seen on the hydrolysis of II and it was found that all salts inhibited the rate of reaction. The inhibition follows the trend NaCl相似文献   

Energetic balance for the Rayleigh–Stokes problem of an Oldroyd-B fluid

Dissipation, the power due to the shear stress at the wall, the change of kinetic energy with time as well as the boundary layer thickness corresponding to the Rayleigh–Stokes problem for an Oldroyd-B fluid are established. The corresponding expressions of Maxwell, second grade and Newtonian fluids, performing the same motions, are obtained as the limiting cases of our general results. Specific features of the four models are emphasized by means of the asymptotic approximations and graphical representations. It is worth mentioning that in comparison with the Newtonian model, the power of the shear stress at the wall and the dissipation for Oldroyd-B fluids increase while the boundary layer thickness decreases.     

Flow of a micropolar fluid through two parallel porous boundaries

The present article contains the numerical solution for steady flow of a micropolar fluid between two porous plates using finite element method. The micropolar fluid fills the space inside the porous plates when the rate of suction at one boundary is equal to the rate of injection at the other boundary. The results for the fluid velocity and microrotation are graphically presented and the influence of micropolar fluid parameter K and parameter R is discussed. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2011