Application of a Chitosan-Immobilized Talaromyces thermophilus Lipase to a Batch Biodiesel Production from Waste Frying Oils

Waste frying oil, which not only harms people’s health but also causes environmental pollution, can be a good alternative to partially substitute petroleum diesel through transesterification reaction. This oil contained 8.8 % of free fatty acids, which cause a problem in a base-catalyzed process. In this study, synthesis of biodiesel was efficiently catalyzed by the covalently immobilized Talaromyces thermophilus lipase and allowed bioconversion yield up to 92 % after 24 h of reaction time. The optimal molar ratio was four to six parts of methanol to one part of oil with a biocatalyst loaded of 25 wt.% of oil. Further, experiments revealed that T. thermophilus lipase, immobilized by a multipoint covalent liaison onto activated chitosan via a short spacer (glutaraldehyde), was sufficiently tolerant to methanol. In fact, using the stepwise addition of methanol, no significant difference was observed from the one-step whole addition at the start of reaction. The batch biodiesel synthesis was performed in a fixed bed reactor with a lipase loaded of 10 g. The bioconversion yield of 98 % was attained after a 5-h reaction time. The bioreactor was operated successfully for almost 150 h without any changes in the initial conversion yield. Most of the chemical and physical properties of the produced biodiesel meet the European and USA standard specifications of biodiesel fuels.     

Desorption isotherms and mathematical modeling of thin layer drying kinetics of tomato

In recent years, there is an increased demand on the international market of dried fruits and vegetables with significant added value. Due to its important production, consumption and nutrient intake, drying of tomato has become a subject of extended and varied research works. The present work is focused on the drying behavior of thin-layer tomato and its mathematical modeling in order to optimize the drying processes. The moisture desorption isotherms of raw tomato were determined at four temperature levels namely 45, 50, 60 and 65 °C using the static gravimetric method. The experimental data obtained were modeled by five equations and the (GAB) model was found to be the best-describing these isotherms. The drying kinetics were experimentally investigated at 45, 55 and 65 °C and performed at air velocities of 0.5 and 2 m/s. In order to investigate the effect of the exchange surface on drying time, samples were dried into two different shapes: tomato halves and tomato quarters. The impact of various drying parameters was also studied (temperature, air velocity and air humidity). The drying curves showed only the preheating period and the falling drying rate period. In this study, attention was paid to the modeling of experimental thin-layer drying kinetics. The experimental results were fitted with four different models.     

Fragmentation and rearrangement patterns of phospho-ureas. Possible consequences for biotin activation

Analysis by electron impact and metastable ions (MIKE technique) of the fragmentation patterns for one acyclic and two cyclic N-phosphorylated ureas reveals for the first case an isomerization from nitrogen to the ureido oxygen atom of the phosphoryl group and subsequent fragmentation. For the other two cases, fragments result from P? N bond breaking and ring-opening. Possible involvement in the biotin-ATP activation process is discussed.     

The influence of the periodic disturbance on the local heat transfer in separated and reattached flow

A numerical study based on the large eddy simulation methodology was made of heat transfer in locally disturbed turbulent separated and reattached flow over a backward facing step. The local disturbance was given to the flow by a sinusoidally blowing/suction of the fluid into a separated shear layer. The Reynolds number was fixed at 33,000 and Richardson number at 0.5. The disturbance frequency was varied in the range 0 ≤ St ≤ 2, where St is the Strouhal number of disturbance. The obtained results revealed the existence of an optimum perturbation frequency value, St = 0.25, in terms of the reduced reattachment length. At this frequency the heat transfer is significantly enhanced in the recirculation zone. The influence of the frequency and the amplitude of disturbance, in the maximum heat transfer positions and the maximum local Nusselt number, is analysed.     

On the essential spectra of coupled operators matrix and application

We define an abstract setting to treat essential spectra of unbounded coupled operator matrix. We prove a well‐posedness result and develop a spectral theory which also allows us to prove an amelioration to many earlier works. We point out that a concrete example from integro‐differential equation fit into this abstract framework involving a general class of regular operator in L₁ spaces.     

Algebraic analysis of a RGB image encryption algorithm based on DNA encoding and chaotic map

Recently a new image encryption method based on DNA encoding and chaotic systems has been proposed. In this paper, several weaknesses of this cryptosystem are pointed out. Equivalent mathematical model of the cryptosystem is designed and algebraic analysis is given. Moreover reduction of the key space has been reached by finding equivalent keys. A recovering scheme is finally given with a lower complexity than the actual decryption scheme.     

Purification and Biochemical Characterization of a Highly Thermostable Xylanase from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Actinomadura</Emphasis> sp. Strain Cpt20 Isolated from Poultry Compost

An extracellular thermostable xylanase from a newly isolated thermophilic Actinomadura sp. strain Cpt20 was purified and characterized. Based on matrix-assisted laser desorption–ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry analysis, the purified enzyme is a monomer with a molecular mass of 20,110.13 Da. The 19 residue N-terminal sequence of the enzyme showed 84% homology with those of actinomycete endoxylanases. The optimum pH and temperature values for xylanase activity were pH 10 and 80 °C, respectively. This xylanase was stable within a pH range of 5–10 and up to a temperature of 90 °C. It showed high thermostability at 60 °C for 5 days and half-life times at 90 °C and 100 °C were 2 and 1 h, respectively. The xylanase was specific for xylans, showing higher specific activity on soluble oat-spelt xylan followed by beechwood xylan. This enzyme obeyed the Michaelis–Menten kinetics, with the K _m and k _cat values being 1.55 mg soluble oat-spelt xylan/ml and 388 min⁻¹, respectively. While the xylanase from Actinomadura sp. Cpt20 was activated by Mn²⁺, Ca²⁺, and Cu²⁺, it was, strongly inhibited by Hg²⁺, Zn²⁺, and Ba²⁺. These properties make this enzyme a potential candidate for future use in biotechnological applications particularly in the pulp and paper industry.     

Chaos control in passive walking dynamics of a compass-gait model

The compass-gait walker is a two-degree-of-freedom biped that can walk passively and steadily down an incline without any actuation. The mathematical model of the walking dynamics is represented by an impulsive hybrid nonlinear model. It is capable of displaying cyclic motions and chaos. In this paper, we propose a new approach to controlling chaos cropped up from the passive dynamic walking of the compass-gait model. The proposed technique is to linearize the nonlinear model around a desired passive hybrid limit cycle. Then, we show that the nonlinear model is transformed to an impulsive hybrid linear model with a controlled jump. Basing on the linearized model, we derive an analytical expression of a constrained controlled Poincaré map. We present a method for the numerical simulation of this constrained map where bifurcation diagrams are plotted. Relying on these diagrams, we show that the linear model is fairly close to the nonlinear one. Using the linearized controlled Poincaré map, we design a state feedback controller in order to stabilize the fixed point of the Poincaré map. We show that this controller is very efficient for the control of chaos for the original nonlinear model.     

A combinatorial approach for enhancing the performance of TH-PPM UWB systems: chaotic vs. classical codes sequences

In this paper, we propose a method to minimize the Multi-User Interference (MUI) caused by Multiple Access (MA) in a Time Hopping Ultra Wide Band (TH-UWB) system with Line-Of-Sight (LOS) multipath channel in a residential environment IEEE 802.15.4a. We consider both synchronous and asynchronous cases.