Some Isoperimetric Inequalities in Electrochemistry and Hele Shaw Flows

Isoperimetric inequalities are applied to a moving-boundaryproblem for doubly-connected domains. This problem occurs forexample in electrochemistry, in which case the domains in questionare the electrolyte of an electrolytic cell. The two electrodessurrounding the electrolyte are assumed to grow or dissolve,at different rates in general, by electrochemical reaction.We obtain optimal estimates showing, for example, that the leastchange in volume of each electrode always occurs in sphericalsymmetry.     

A spectral domain approach to modelling of EM scattering for Synthetic Aperture Radar target recognition

A Fourier-based technique for electromagnetic (EM) wave reconstruction with application to polarimetric airborne and spaceborne radar data exploitation is presented. The method is different from conventional modelling techniques for Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) applications as a result of the full electromagnetic treatment of field interactions with the scatterer, the possibility of introducing new and controllable feature classes for target classification, and accurate decomposition of the source impulse response function that avoids potential errors (e.g. loss of coherent information) associated with the spherical phase approximations. The capability of extracting scatterer information such as the coherent radar cross section (RCS) is explored.     

Effect of gamma irradiation on the microbiological quality and on the functional properties of proteins in dry red kidney beans (Phaseolus vulgaris)

Gamma-irradiation was found to affect the physicochemical properties of dry red kidney beans. The highest dose used (8 kGy) significantly (P0.05) modified the extent of deamidation, the number of sulfhydryl groups, as well as the solubility and the hydrophobicity of the protein. Deamidation, protein solubility and hydrophobicity all increased with the irradiation dose while the number of sulfhydryl groups was reduced by the treatment. Furthermore, irradiation also affected the outgrowth of natural filamentous fungi contaminants present on the dry beans. A dose of 1.5 kGy reduced the number of filamentous fungi by 2 log cycles immediately after treatment. However, the highest dose used (3 kGy) did not eliminate the filamentous fungi completely. Moreover, the filamentous fungi population was a lot less diversified on the irradiated samples. Species of Aspergillus sp. and Penicillium sp. were more abundant on the unirradiated beans while the beans irradiated at 3 kGy contained were predominantly infected by species of Rhizopus sp. , Cladosporium sp. and Alternaria sp.     

Biphasic enantioselective olefin epoxidation using Tropos dibenzoazepinium catalysts

Several novel chiral iminium TRISPHAT [tris(tetrachlorobenzenediolato)phosphate(V)] salts combining a diphenylazepinium core, chiral exocyclic appendages, and lipophilic counterions have been prepared and tested in biphasic enantioselective olefin epoxidation conditions. Interestingly, the iminium salts derived from commercially available (S)- or (R)-1,2,2-trimethylpropylamine can display efficiency similar to those made from L-acetonamine. Variable-temperature NMR spectroscopy (VT-NMR) and circular dichroism (CD) experiments were performed in search of a correlation between good enantioselectivity in the products and high diastereomeric control of the biphenyl axial chirality of the catalysts.     

MODELING CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE EFFECT ON THE NORWEGIAN SALMON FARMING INDUSTRY

Abstract Global warming is expected to affect the ecosystem in the Northeast Atlantic, and substantial changes will also affect the aquaculture industry. Farming of salmon and trout is the biggest aquaculture industry in Norway, with an export value of about 3 billion US dollars in 2007. The objective of the paper is to analyze the potential economic effect a general increase in sea temperature can have on the Norwegian salmon aquaculture industry. The assessment of the economic impact of global warming is made possible by estimating a growth function, which explicitly includes sea water temperature. The analysis compares the economic effect of a climate change on fish farming plants in the south and the north of Norway. The scenarios are based on a model with monthly seasonal variation in temperature.     

Development of an electrospray ionization mass spectrometric method for the quantification of theophylline in horse serum

A rapid and selective method has been developed for the determination of theophylline in horse serum by LC-ESI/MS/MS. The analytical method includes a protein precipitation extraction for sample preparation, liquid chromatography separation technique and ionspray tandem mass spectrometry. The drug was extracted from serum using a protein precipitation with acetonitrile and the supernatants were analyzed using an LC-ESI/MS/MS instrument. The chromatography was performed using a 50 x 2.1 mm C(8) analytical column and an isocratic mobile phase composes of 60:40 acetonitrile-0.5% formic acid in water with a flow rate fixed at 350 microL/min. A linear (weighted 1/concentration) relationship was used to perform the calibration over an analytical range of 0.1-20 ppm. The intra-batch precision and accuracy at LLOQ, medium and high concentration were 11.7, 6.9 and 5.4% and 95.8, 107.8 and 95.8%, respectively, and the inter-batch precision and accuracy at LLOQ, medium and high concentration were 10.4, 7.9 and 7.3% and 97.3, 105.2 and 95.9%, respectively. This LC-ESI/MS/MS method for the determination of theophylline in horse serum has been proved to within generally accepted criteria used for bioanalytical assay and was used successfully during clinical investigation.     

Determination of eugenol in rat plasma by liquid chromatography-quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometry using a simple off-line dansyl chloride derivatization reaction to enhance signal intensity

A rapid, selective and sensitive method was developed for the determination of eugenol concentration using an off-line dansyl chloride derivatization step to enhance signal intensity. The method consisted of a protein precipitation extraction followed by derivatization with dansyl chloride and analysis by full scan liquid chromatography electrospray quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-QIT). The separation was achieved using a 100 x 2 mm C(8) analytical column combined with an isocratic mobile phase composed of 75:25 acetonitrile: 0.1% formic acid in water set at a flow rate of 0.25 mL/min. Signal intensity of the eugenol-dansyl chloride derivative was increased up to 100-fold as compared with the underivatized eugenol in positive electrospray mode. An analytical range of 100-20,000 ng/mL was used in the calibration curve of plasma and blood samples. The LOD observed was 0.5 pg injected on column. The novel method met all requirements of specificity, sensitivity, linearity, precision, accuracy and stability. In conclusion, a rapid and sensitive LC-ESI/MS/MS method using a derivatization agent was developed to enhance signal intensity of eugenol.     

Heat transfer in magnetohydrodynamic laminar radial channel flow

Heat transfer in the steady axisymetrical laminar source flow of an incompressible electrically conducting fluid between two parallel disks in the presence of a transverse applied magnetic field is analyzed. The energy equation is solved numerically for the temperature distribution, where both Joulean and viscous heating are included. Both local and average Nusselt numbers for the case of constant wall temperature are evaluated. For fluids of moderate and high Prandtl numbers, Nusselt number is seen to be a strong function of both Hartmann number and a heat generation parameter together with a modified Peclet number. However, for fluids of small Prandtl number, Joulean heating and viscous dissipation can be neglected without appreciable error.     

Effect of gamma-irradiation on the foaming behavior of ethylene-co-octene polymers

Ethylene-co-octene polymers containing different branching levels were irradiated in air and under vacuum at 25, 50 and 100 kGy. Gel fraction measurements, thermal analysis and rheology were used to assess the effect of the treatment on polymer structure modifications. The copolymer with 24 wt% octene was shown to be more sensitive to gamma rays and degradation was observed in some cases. Cross-linking in the amorphous phase also occurred as a consequence of irradiation and affected the foaming behavior of these materials.