Thermo-economic optimization of solar air heaters with arcuate-shaped obstacles

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - In this study, thermo-economic optimization of single-pass SAHs (solar air heaters) with obstacles of arcuate shape has been carried out. The research...     

What determines the banking sector performance in globalized financial markets? The case of Turkey

This study attempts to give an insight into the trend in the performance of the Turkish banking sector by conducting a panel data fixed effects regression analysis. The results reveal that efficiency change is negatively related to the number of branches. We find a positive relationship between the loan ratio and the performance indices efficiency and efficiency change. Furthermore, bank capitalization is positively related to efficiency change. Interestingly however, return on equity is not statistically significant in explaining any of the efficiency measures. There is also no robust relationship between foreign ownership and efficiency. Finally, restructuring attempts in post-crises epoch robustly account for the improvement in efficiency scores in recent years.     

Forecasting the thermal conductivity of a nanofluid using artificial neural networks

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - In this study, the influence of incorporating MWCNT on the thermal conductivity of paraffin was evaluated numerically. Input variables including mass...     

Effects of solvent casted poly (lactic acid)/poly(ethylene glycol)/paraben derivative triazine films on antibacterial performance and cytotoxicity

A series of poly(lactic acid) (PLA) films that including fully paraben substituted triazine derivatives having anti-bacterial properties have been prepared by utilizing the solvent-casting method. PLA as biodegradable polymer, poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) as a plasticizing agent and s-triazine molecules (TA01, TA02, TA03, TA04, and TA05) behaving as an anti-bacterial component have been utilized in the experiments. The influence of TA compounds on the antibacterial performance of PLA/PEG films was investigated for the first time against Gram-negative Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) bacteria via the contact active method. TA01-03-05 incorporated PLA/PEG films gave the best results against E.coli bacteria and log10 reductions of these films were 0.78, 0.64, and 0.65 respectively. The effect of TA compounds on the cell viability was investigated against cancer and non-cancerous cell lines using an MTS assay. The results showed that TA compounds had a positive effect on cell growth in non-cancerous cells, while they had a negative effect on cell growth in cancer cells. Furthermore, the addition of TA considerably increased the decomposition temperatures from 349° to 361° and char yield from 0.65 for PLA/PEG film to 2.3 for PLA/PEG/TA05. All of the films had good transparency and low opacity which was 7.2 for pure PLA used for control and the maximum opacity value was 11.2 observed for PLA/PEG/01. TA03 and TA04 caused a decrement of water vapor permission when compared to PLA/PEG films from 1439 to 749 and 664. It was also observed that pure PLA/PEG film lost weight rapidly over time during degradation tests. On the other hand, weight loss wasn't observed in PLA/PEG/TA films. This study focused on demonstrating the use of our new, flexible PLA/PEG derivatives in food and medical packaging.     

A study on the effect of magnetic field and the sinusoidal boundary condition on free convective heat transfer of non-Newtonian power-law fluid in a square enclosure with two constant-temperature obstacles using lattice Boltzmann method

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - In this paper, the flow pattern and thermal characteristics of free convection of a Newtonian magnetohydrodynamic fluid flow inside a square enclosure...     

Encapsulation of L-dopa and catechol in bovine serum albumin nanocarrier using desolvation method and their in vitro release studies

In the current study, the interaction between L-dopa and bovine serum albumin (BSA) as well as catechol and BSA is investigated separately. In order to achieve the optimum values for encapsulated efficiency (EE), the content of crosslinker/BSA, organic/aqueous phase, drug/BSA, stirring rate, and pH were closely studied taking the advantage of Taguchi method. Particle characterization was carried out using transmission electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering techniques. The most appropriate catechol and L-dopa nanoparticles in the size range of 100 nm and 65 nm, respectively, and at optimized conditions of drug/BSA = 0.1, pH = 7.4, crosslinker/BSA = 0.084, organic/aqueous phase = 4 and stirring rate 400 rpm were obtained. The most favorable EE (encapsulation efficiency) and LC (loading capacity) for L-dopa and catechol was estimated to be 88.1% and 83.6%, respectively, and the calculated LC% was achieved 93.4% and 89.7% for L-dopa and catechol, respectively. The chromatographic analyses results were also found to be in a good agreement with the obtained data for the calculated EE% and LC% values. in vitro release of loaded drugs from nanoparticles in phosphate-buffered saline (pH = 7.4, incubated at 37 ± 0.5°C under stirring rate of 100 rpm) showed the release of 78% catechol and 89% L-dopa during 480 min and 510 min, respectively.     

A product integration method for the approximation of the early exercise boundary in the American option pricing problem

Integral equation methods are now becoming well‐established tools in the study of financial models used in theory and practice. In this paper, we investigate the fully nonlinear weakly singular nonstandard Volterra integral equations representing the early exercise boundary of American option contracts, which gained popularity in recent years. We propose a product integration approach based on linear barycentric rational interpolation to solve the problem. The price of the option will then be computed using the obtained approximation of the early exercise boundary and a barycentric rational quadrature. The convergence of the approximation scheme will also be analyzed. Finally, some numerical experiments based on the introduced method are presented and compared with some exiting approaches.