Designing of an Intensification Process for Biosynthesis and Recovery of Menaquinone-7

A nutritional food rich in menaquinone-7 has a potential in preventing osteoporosis and cardiovascular diseases. The static fermentation of Bacillus subtilis natto is widely regarded as an optimum process for menaquinone-7 production. The major issues for the bulk production of menaquinone-7 are the low fermentation yield, biofilm formation and the use of organic solvents for the vitamin extraction. In this study, we demonstrate that the dynamic fermentation involving high stirring and aeration rates enhances the yield of fermentation process significantly compared to static system. The menaquinone-7 concentration of 226 mg/L was produced at 1,000 rpm, 5 vvm, 40 °C after 5 days of fermentation. This concentration is 70-fold higher than commercially available food products such as natto. Additionally, it was found that more than 80 % of menaquinone-7 was recovered in situ in the vegetable oil that was gradually added to the system as an anti-foaming agent. The intensification process developed in this study has a capacity to produce an oil rich in menaquinone-7 in one step and eliminate the use of organic solvents for recovery of this compound. This oil can, therefore, be used for the preparation of broad range of supplementary and dietary food products rich in menaquinone-7 to reduce the risk of osteoporotic fractures and cardiovascular diseases.     

Solid phase extraction of Cd(II) and Pb(II) using a magnetic metal-organic framework, and their determination by FAAS

We describe a novel magnetic metal-organic framework (MOF) for the preconcentration of Cd(II) and Pb(II) ions. The MOF was prepared from the Fe₃O₄-pyridine conjugate and the copper(II) complex of trimesic acid. The MOF was characterized by IR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, SEM and XRD. A Box-Behnken design through response surface methodology and experimental design was used to identify the optimal parameters for preconcentration. Extraction time, amount of magnetic MOF and pH value were found to be critical factors for uptake, while type, volume, concentration of eluent, and elution time are critical in the elution step. The ions were then determined by FAAS. The limits of detection are 0.2 and 1.1 μg?L^?1 for Cd(II), and Pb(II) ions, respectively, relative standard deviations are <4.5% (for five replicates at 50 μg?L^?1 of Cd(II) and Pb(II) ions), and the enrichment capacity of the MOF is at around 190 mg?g^?1 for both ions which is higher than the conventional Fe3O4-pyridine material. The magnetic MOF was successfully applied to the rapid extraction of trace quantities of Cd(II) and Pb(II) ions in fish, sediment, and water samples.

Absorption and scattering imaging of tissue with steady-state second-differential spectral-analysis tomography

A novel approach to reconstructing both the absorption and the scattering properties of a turbid medium simultaneously from steady-state broadband spectral measurements is presented that utilizes second-differential fitting to the water spectrum to estimate the optical path length in tissue. Theoretical and experimental evidence is provided to demonstrate the robust accuracy of the spectroscopy approach and reconstructed absorption images. The steady-state broadband CCD system has the potential to provide accurate chromophore imaging without the technological complexity of time- or frequency-domain systems.     

Kinked crack analysis by a hybridized boundary element/boundary collocation method

In this research a two dimensional displacement discontinuity method (which is a kind of indirect boundary element method) using higher order elements (i.e. a source element with a cubic variation of displacement discontinuities having four sub-elements) is used to obtain the displacement discontinuities along each boundary element. In this paper, three kinds of the higher order boundary elements are used: the ordinary elements, the kink elements and the special crack tip elements.The boundary collocation technique is used for the calculation of the displacement discontinuities at the center of each sub-elements. Again a special boundary collocation technique is used to treat the kinked source elements occur in the crack analysis. Considering the two source elements (each having four sub-elements) joined at a corner (kink point). The collocation points in the cubic element model which are outside of the kink point are moved to the crack kink then the displacement discontinuities on the left and right sides of the kink are calculated. The displacement discontinuities of the kink point are obtained by averaging the corresponding values of its left and right sides. The special crack tip elements are also treated by the boundary displacement collocation technique considering the singularity variation of the displacements and stresses near the crack tip. Some simple example problems are solved numerically by the proposed method. The numerical results are compared with the corresponding results obtained by the previous methods cited in the literature. This comparison shows a very good agreement between the results and verify the accuracy and validity of the proposed method.     

Hawking Effect with Generalized Uncertainty Principle and Modified Dispersion Relations in de Sitter-Schwarzschild Black Hole

Although the tunneling approach is well established for black hole radiation, much works have been done to support the extension of this approach to more general situations. In this article the Parikh-Kraus-Wilczek tunneling proposal of black hole radiation is considered. The black hole thermodynamics and tunneling radiation are studied, based on both, the generalized uncertainty principle and the modified dispersion relation analysis. It is shown that entropy, temperature and the original Parikh-Kraus-Wilczek tunneling radiation calculation receives new corrections. it has been shown that the results of this two alternative approaches are identical if one uses the suitable expansion coefficients.     

A generalized orthogonality relation via norm derivatives in real normed linear spaces

Aequationes mathematicae - We introduce a generalized orthogonality relation in real normed linear spaces via norm derivatives. The relation between this concept and other types of orthogonalities...     

On the Schröder–Bernstein property for modules

The well known Schröder–Bernstein Theorem states that any two sets with one to one maps into each other are isomorphic. The question of whether any two (subisomorphic or) direct summand subisomorphic algebraic structures are isomorphic, has long been of interest. Kaplansky asked whether direct summands subisomorphic abelian groups are always isomorphic? The question generated a great deal of interest. The study of this question for the general class of modules has been somewhat limited. We extend the study of this question for modules in this paper. We say that a module Msatisfies the Schröder–Bernstein property (S-B property) if any two direct summands of M which are subisomorphic to direct summands of each other, are isomorphic. We show that a large number of classes of modules satisfy the S-B property. These include the classes of quasi-continuous, directly finite, quasi-discrete and modules with ACC on direct summands. It is also shown that over a Noetherian ring R, every extending module satisfies the S-B property. Among applications, it is proved that the class of rings R for which every R-module satisfies the S-B property is precisely that of pure-semisimple rings. We show that over a commutative domain R, any two quasi-continuous subisomorphic R-modules are isomorphic if and only if R is a PID. We study other conditions related to the S-B property and obtain characterizations of certain classes of rings via those conditions. Examples which delimit and illustrate our results are provided.     

One-pot synthesis of multisubstituted imidazoles catalyzed by Dendrimer-PWA<Superscript>n</Superscript> nanoparticles under solvent-free conditions and ultrasonic irradiation

An efficient, green and eco-friendly protocol has been developed for the synthesis of 2,4,5-trisubstituted and 1,2,4,5-tetrasubstituted imidazoles via one-pot condensation reaction using Dendrimer-PWAⁿ as catalyst under solvent-free conditions or ultrasonic irradiation in excellent yields. The reactions under conventional heating conditions were compared with the ultrasonic-assisted reactions. The operational simplicity, practicability and applicability of this protocol to various substrates make it an interesting alternative to previous procedures. The present methodology offers several advantages such as excellent yields, short reaction times, a cleaner reaction, and the absence of any tedious work-up or purification. The catalyst is easily separated from the products by filtration and also exhibits remarkable reusable activity. SEM, BET and DLS of the catalyst were also investigated after each reaction cycle.     

Electron energy spectrum in the field-ionized plasma

In this article, the effect of ionization on the energy spectrum of electrons within the interaction of a laser pulse with hydrogen atoms is investigated using particle-in-cell simulation codes. The results show that the behaviour of electrons' energy distribution function in the field-ionized plasma, which occurred due to the field ionization, compared with that in the pre-plasma strongly depends on the pulse shape. For short rise-time pulses (here 30 fs), due to the rapid enhancement of laser electric field, ionization occurs quickly, and as a result, there is not much difference in the electron energy in both the media. However, for pulses with rise time of 40 fs, in the pre-plasma state, the electron population reaches higher energies compared with the field-ionized plasma state. The main reason for this difference is the nonlinear wave breaking that happens earlier due to density inhomogeneity in the field-ionized plasma. On the other hand, at longer rise-time pulses (here 60 and 70 fs), electrons achieve higher energies in the field-ionized plasma than those in the case of pre-plasma. In this case, because of density fluctuations in the field-ionized plasma, the Raman backscattered radiations are seeded by a strong initial noise at the earlier times and the Mendonca condition for chaos threshold is met sooner. Therefore, the electrons gain more energy through the stochastic mechanism that is in agreement with chaotic nature of the motion.