Radiation pasteurised oil palm empty fruit bunch fermented with Pleurotus sajor-caju as feed supplement to ruminants

In solid state fermentation, Pleurotus sajor-caju has been found to be able to degrade at least 30% oil palm empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) fibre leaving 70 % useful materials. Conditions under which fermentation carried out were investigated. It was found that, in the temperature range between 25– 28 °C, relative ph between 6–8, moisture between 60–70 % and medium composition of CaCO₃: rice bran 2 %: 5 % were the optimum conditions. The results showed in fermented products that, there were substantial reduction in cellulosic component such as Crude Fiber (CF, 18 %); Acid Detergent Fibre (ADF, 45 %), Neutral Detergent Fibre (NDF, 61 %) and Acid Detergent Lignin (ADL, 14 %). However, Crude Protein (CP, 10%) increased resulted from single cell protein enrichment of mycelial microbial mass. The mass reductions of substrate in fermentation process corresponds to the CO₂ released during fermentation. Hence, attributable to the decreased in content of CF, ADF, NDF, and ADL. The digestibility study has also been carried out to determine the useful level of this product to ruminant. Aflatoxin content was detected low in both the initial substrates and products. Based on nutritional value and low content of aflatoxin, the product is useful as a source of roughage to ruminant.     

Carboxylic acid functionalization of nylon 6 by radiation grafting and conversion to zinc salts: Effects on physical properties

 Functionalization of polymers by grafting monomeric species on to the backbone of molecular chains with the use of γ-radiation has been used extensively. In this work methacrylic acid was grafted onto a commercial grade of polycaproamide (Nylon 6) by preirradiating the polymer granules to 15 kGy at a rate of 1.0 kGy per hour and subsequently immersing these in a 10% aqueous solution of methacrylic acid in the presence of small quantities of FeSO₄ as homopolymerization inhibitor. The polymer was subsequently neutralized by mixing it with zinc acetylacetonate in a laboratory scale melt mixing device. The acid-grafting polymer modification resulted in an increase in glass transition temperature, while the addition of zinc acetylacetonate gave rise to two transitions: The lower transition corresponds to a miscible mixture of free polyamide and acid-grafted polymer, both plasticized with undecomposed zinc compound, while the upper transition corresponds to the zinc salt of the acid grafted polyamide. Through rheological measurements it was shown that both the acid-grafted polymer and the derived zinc salt have a branched structure, possibly containing also some crosslinked domains. Large improvements in solvent resistance were observed for both type of polymer modifications. Received: 13 December 1996 Accepted: 10 February 1997     

A modulated dsc study on the in situ polymerization of cyclic butylene terephthalate oligomers

The polymerization of a cyclic butylene terephthalate (CBT) oligomer was studied as a function of temperature (T=200 and 260°C, respectively) by modulated DSC (MDSC). The first heating was followed by cooling after various holding times (5, 15 and 30 min) prior to the second heating which ended always at T=260°C. This allowed us to study the crystallization and melting behavior of the resulting polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), as well. In contrary to the usual belief, the CBT polymerization is exothermic and the related process is superimposed to that of the CBT melting. The melting behavior of the PBT was affected by the polymerization mode (performed below or above the melting temperature of the PBT product) of the CBT. Annealing above the melting temperature of PBT yielded a product featuring double melting. This was attributed to the presence of crystallites with different degrees of perfection. The crystals perfection which occurred via recrystallization/remelting was manifested by a pronounced exothermic peak in the non-reversing trace.     

Sol–gel derived ZnO nanoparticulate films for ultraviolet photodetector (UV) applications

Zinc oxide nanoparticles based UV detector was fabricated on thermally oxidized silicon substrate. ZnO nanoparticle films were deposited using sol–gel route. The seed solution was prepared using two different solvents (methanol and isopropyl alcohol (IPA)). The surface morphology of the prepared films was characterized by FESEM. Structural characterization along with optical measurements was carried out using XRD and UV–vis spectroscopy. For the UV photo-detector, ZnO thin film prepared in IPA is selected based on their structural and optical analysis. The changes in photo-response of ZnO thin film with respect to time was studied under the dark and variable UV intensities. It was observed that the photocurrent increased with a factor of 4.82 under 1.16 mW of UV intensity. It is believe that the synthesized ZnO thin films have potential to use in the ultraviolet photo-detector applications.     

Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Novobiocin Core Analogues as Hsp90 Inhibitors

Development of heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) C‐terminal inhibitors has emerged as an exciting strategy for the treatment of cancer. Previous efforts have focused on modifications to the natural products novobiocin and coumermycin. Moreover, variations in both the sugar and amide moieties have been extensively studied, whereas replacements for the coumarin core have received less attention. Herein, 24 cores were synthesized with varying distances and angles between the sugar and amide moieties. Compounds that exhibited good anti‐proliferative activity against multiple cancer cell lines and Hsp90 inhibitory activity, were those that placed the sugar and amide moieties between 7.7 and 12.1 Å apart along with angles of 180°.     

Influence of Macro-pores on DNAPL Migration in Double-Porosity Soil Using Light Transmission Visualization Method

Double porosity is a substantial microstructure characteristic in a wide range of geomaterials. It is a natural phenomenon that can be found in many types of soil, and it can result from biological, chemical or mechanical damage. In this paper, the influence of macro-pores on dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) migration in double-porosity medium was investigated using light transmission visualization technique. Three experiments were carried out in two-dimensional flow chambers filled with a double-porosity medium composed of a mixture of local sand and sintered kaolin clay spheres arranged in a periodic manner. In each experiment, a different volumetric fraction of macro-pores and micropores was used. Tetrachloroethylene (PCE) was used to simulate DNAPL, and it was dyed using Oil-Red-O for better visualization. A predetermined amount of PCE was injected into the flow chambers and this amount was re-calculated using image analysis. A very strong correlation was found between the PCE amount injected and the amount calculated from image analysis in each experiment. The experiment was repeated by filling the flow chamber with silica sand to represent single-porosity medium. The results show that the macro-pores have a considerable effect on the PCE migration in double-porosity soil as the PCE movement was the fastest in the third experiment which contained the largest macro-pores volume. The accuracy of the method was validated using statistical analysis. The results show a slight difference between the means of the three experiments, indicating that the method is viable for monitoring NAPL migration in double-porosity medium under different volumetric fractions of macro-pores and micropores.