Two- and three-dimensional comparative study of heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of nanofluids flow through a ventilated cubic cavity (part I: Newtonian nanofluids)

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - Through this paper, three-dimensional fluid flow and heat transfer of Al2O3 nanofluid within ventilated enclosures was taken into consideration....     

Stochastic activity networks with truncated exponential activity times

This paper presents an approach for using right-truncated exponentially distributed random variables to model activity times in stochastic activity networks. The advantages of using the right-truncated exponential distribution are discussed. The moments of a project completion time using the proposed distribution are derived and compared with other estimated moments in literature.     

Carbon Paste Electrode for the Potentiometric Flow Injection Analysis of Drotaverine Hydrochloride in Serum and Urine

A carbon paste electrode for drotaverine hydrochloride (DvCl) was prepared and fully characterized in terms of composition, life span, usable pH range, response time and temperature. The electrode was applied to the potentiometric determination of drotaverinium ions in pharmaceutical preparations and biological fluids in steady state and flow injection conditions (FIA). The electrode is based on a mixture of two ion exchangers, namely, drotaverinium-silicotungestate and drotaverinium-tetraphenylborate dissolved in tricresyl phosphate as pasting liquid. The modified electrode showed a near-Nernstian slope of 59.34±2mV over the concentration range of 5.0×10^–7–1.0 × 10^–2M. The electrode exhibits good selectivity for DvCl with respect to a large number of inorganic cations, organic cations, sugars and amino acids. Potentiometric titrations of DvCl with several titrants have been monitored using this modified carbon paste electrode as an end-point indicator electrode. The proposed electrode offers the advantages of simplicity, accuracy, automation feasibility and applicability to turbid and colored samples.     

Eosin photodegradation over TiO2 modified by γ-ray irradiation

TiO₂ thin films are elaborated by sol gel on glass substrates and irradiated with ⁶⁰Co γ-rays. The X-ray diffraction, UV-Visible spectroscopy and transport properties are investigated. The films are nominally non stochiometric and the conductivity occurs by thermally activated hopping of lattice polaron. The oxygen vacancies induced by γ-ray irradiation at lower dose (<10 kGy) generate mixed valences Ti⁴⁺/³⁺, thus altering the transport properties. The photo-electrochemical characterisation is undertaken to evaluate the photo catalytic performance. The Mott-Schottky plots are characteristic of n type conduction from which a flat band potential of ?0.62 V _SCE and a donor density of 5 × 10¹⁷ cm^?3 are determined for the most active film. The Nyquist plot exhibits a semi-circular arc whose center lies below the real axis, due to the constant phase element (CPE). The energy band diagram shows the potentiality of the films for the eosin photodegradation. 68% of initial concentration (10 mg L^?1) disappears after 2 h of exposure to the solar light. TiO₂ irradiated with gamma dose of 10 kGy shows the best efficiency, due to the resistance decrees and high electron mobility (25 cm² V^?1 s^?1). The eosin oxidation follows a first order kinetic with a rate constant of 6 × 10^?2 min^?1.     

Effects of physics change in Monte Carlo code on electron pencil beam dose distributions

Pencil beam algorithms used in computerized electron beam dose planning are usually described using the small angle multiple scattering theory. Alternatively, the pencil beams can be generated by Monte Carlo simulation of electron transport. In a previous work, the 4th version of the Electron Gamma Shower (EGS) Monte Carlo code was used to obtain dose distributions from monoenergetic electron pencil beam, with incident energy between 1 MeV and 50 MeV, interacting at the surface of a large cylindrical homogeneous water phantom. In 2000, a new version of this Monte Carlo code has been made available by the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), which includes various improvements in its electron-transport algorithms. In the present work, we were interested to see if the new physics in this version produces pencil beam dose distributions very different from those calculated with oldest one. The purpose of this study is to quantify as well as to understand these differences. We have compared a series of pencil beam dose distributions scored in cylindrical geometry, for electron energies between 1 MeV and 50 MeV calculated with two versions of the Electron Gamma Shower Monte Carlo Code. Data calculated and compared include isodose distributions, radial dose distributions and fractions of energy deposition. Our results for radial dose distributions show agreement within 10% between doses calculated by the two codes for voxels closer to the pencil beam central axis, while the differences are up to 30% for longer distances. For fractions of energy deposition, the results of the EGS4 are in good agreement (within 2%) with those calculated by EGSnrc at shallow depths for all energies, whereas a slightly worse agreement (15%) is observed at deeper distances. These differences may be mainly attributed to the different multiple scattering for electron transport adopted in these two codes and the inclusion of spin effect, which produces an increase of the effective range of electrons.     

Chemical elements of Algerian Mentha spicata L. used in the treatment of digestive system disorders by employing instrumental neutron activation analysis technique

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - The objectives of this research were to study the elemental concentrations of Mentha spicata L., using a sensitive nuclear analytical technique...     

Magnetic Polymer Composite Particles Via In situ Inverse Miniemulsion Polymerization Process

We aimed at preparing magnetic iron oxide particles by the oxidation-precipitation method in order to encapsulate these particles in polymer matrices composed of poly(acrylamide-styrene sulfonic acid sodium salt). Nanocomposites were synthesized by the incorporation of surface treated magnetic nanoparticles in the synthesized polymers via in situ inverse mini-emulsion polymerization process. The study parameter was the ionic monomer content in the synthesized polymers. The structure and the morphology of the magnetic nanogels were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), dynamic light scattering (DLS), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). FTIR and XRD showed that pure magnetite was formed and successfully encapsulated in the composite nanoparticles. The polymer encapsulation could reduce the susceptibility to leaching and could protect the magnetite particle surfaces from oxidation. The ionic monomer content had a great effect on the magnetization behavior. Magnetite prepared by the oxidation precipitation method, of 50 nm mean particle size, was embedded successfully into the polymer nanogels with a reasonable magnetic response, as proved by vibrating sample magnetometer measurement. Magnetic nanocomposites were proven to be super-ferromagnetic materials.     

Amorphous carbon nitride as an alternative electrode material in electroanalysis: Simultaneous determination of dopamine and ascorbic acid

Boron-doped diamond (BDD) films are excellent electrode materials, whose electrochemical activity for some analytes can be tuned by controlling their surface termination, most commonly either to predominantly hydrogen or oxygen. This tuning can be accomplished by e.g. suitable cathodic or anodic electrochemical pretreatments. Recently, it has been shown that amorphous carbon nitride (a-CN_x) films may present electrochemical characteristics similar to those of BDD, including the influence of surface termination on their electrochemical activity toward some analytes. In this work, we report for the first time a complete electroanalytical method using an a-CN_x electrode. Thus, an a-CN_x film deposited on a stainless steel foil by DC magnetron sputtering is proposed as an alternative electrode for the simultaneous determination of dopamine (DA) and ascorbic acid (AA) in synthetic biological samples by square-wave voltammetry. The obtained results are compared with those attained using a BDD electrode. For both electrodes, a same anodic pretreatment in 0.1 mol L⁻¹ KOH was necessary to attain an adequate and equivalent separation of the DA and AA oxidation potential peaks of about 330 mV. The detection limits obtained for the simultaneous determination of these analytes using the a-CN_x electrode were 0.0656 μmol L⁻¹ for DA and 1.05 μmol L⁻¹ for AA, whereas with the BDD electrode these values were 0.283 μmol L⁻¹ and 0.968 μmol L⁻¹, respectively. Furthermore, the results obtained in the analysis of the analytes in synthetic biological samples were satisfactory, attesting the potential application of the a-CN_x electrode in electroanalysis.     

Inhibition effect of horehound (Marrubium vulgare L.) extract towards C38 steel corrosion in HCl solution

The corrosion inhibition properties of horehound (Marrubium vulgare L.) extract (HE) in 1 M hydrochloric acid medium was carried out using electrochemical methods (polarization curve and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy). Experiments were performed by concentration of the inhibitor and temperature effect. The results showed variation in inhibition performance of this plant extract. The Langmuir model was tested to describe the adsorption behavior of the inhibitor on the C38 steel surface. Some thermodynamic functions of dissolution processes were also determined.