Sharif Digital Repository

Electrochemical oxidation of l-ascorbic acid on polycrystalline silver in alkaline aqueous solutions is studied by cyclic voltammetry (CV), chronoamperometry (CA) and impedance spectroscopy (IS). The anodic electro-oxidation starts at -500 mV versus SCE and shows continued anodic oxidation in the cathodic half cycle in the CV regime signifying slowly oxidizing adsorbates. Diffusion coefficient of ascorbate ion measured under both voltammetric regimes is around 1.4 × 10-5 cm2 s-1. Impedance spectroscopy measures the capacitances associated with double layer and adsorption around 50 μF cm-2 and 4 mF cm-2 as well as the adsorption and decomposition resistances (rates). © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All... 

L-Ascorbate anion electro-oxidation on a silver electrode in hydroxide solution in the absence and presence of sodium polysulfide of concentrations from 1 × 10 -5 to 4.5 × 10 -4 mol/L was studied using cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Both hydroxide and polysulfide ions inhibited L-ascorbate ion oxidation, with the poisoning effect of polysulfide ion being more pronounced in the potential range of -0.3 to -0.2 V/SCE. The time constants for L-ascorbate ion oxidation in the absence and presence of polysulfide were, 10 -3 to 1 × 10 -2 s and 1 × 10 -4 to 1 × 10 -2 s, respectively depending on the potential used for the impedance analysis. Based on the cyclic... 

Cathodically deposited Ag 2Se, to form a 1-μm-thick film, characterized by energy dispersive X-ray analysis and scanning electron microscopy, showed high electro-catalytic activity for l-ascorbic acid oxidation in alkaline solution. The onset of the process was about 80 mV cathodic of that previously observed on Ag under the same conditions and far superior over glassy carbon and Pt. The values of the exchange current density, standard heterogeneous rate constant, and transfer coefficient of the reaction were 1. 65 × 10 -4 A cm -2, 4. 35 × 10 -7 cm s -1, and 0. 60, respectively. Diffusion coefficient of l-ascorbate di-anion was also measured and was around 7. 00 × 10 -6 cm 2 s -1  

Electro-oxidation of methanol on Ni in NaOH solutions with the alkali concentration in the range of 0.05-0.5 M and in the presence of 0.5 M Na 2SO4 supporting electrolyte is studied. All the mentioned species compete for adsorption on Ni and OH- is essential for the electro-oxidation process. The electro-oxidation seems to proceed through the electro-chemical reactions of adsorbed methanol and hydroxide species and the removal of the resulting intermediate by adsorbed hydroxyl groups. The mechanism is consistent with the cyclic voltammetry and impedance spectroscopy results and can semi-quantitatively account for the appearance of capacitive, inductive and negative resistance loops as well... 

The cold drawing process is one of the precise metal forming techniques which have attracted attention by many researchers with respect to the given properties such as potential for improvement of mechanical properties of the material, achieving of accurate dimensional tolerances and rise of quality at final surface so that different studies are conducted on properties of various materials in the course of analysis of its effect. Using cold drawing and also exertion of special heat treatment cycle in this investigation, initially the seamless steel tube Ck60 has been produced and then effect of cold drawing has been assessed on the mechanical properties and structure of steel. The production... 

The present study was designed to search for metabolic biomarkers and their correlation with serum zinc in Crohn's disease patients. Crohn's disease (CD) is a form of inflammatory bowel disease that may affect any part of the gastrointestinal tract and can be difficult to diagnose using the clinical tests. Thus, introduction of a novel diagnostic method would be a major step towards CD treatment.Proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy ( 1H NMR) was employed for metabolic profiling to find out which metabolites in the serum have meaningful significance in the diagnosis of CD. CD and healthy subjects were correctly classified using random forest methodology. The classification model for... 

The petroleum industry suffers from reservoir souring phenomena, which has negative impacts on production facilities, health, and environment. Injection of incompatible water into the reservoir (waterflooding), which is considered as an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) method, is one of the most common causes of reservoir souring. In general, injected brine, especially seawater, contains high amounts of sulfate ion (SO42−). A high concentration of sulfate in the presence of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) leads to the microbial reservoir souring. During this phenomenon, sulfide, specifically hydrogen sulfide gas (H2S) appears in the producing fluid of the reservoir. In this paper, a coupled... 

The liver plays a complex role in metabolism and detoxification, and better tools are needed to understand its function and to develop liver-targeted therapies. In this study, we establish a mechanobiological model of liver transport and hepatocyte biology to elucidate the metabolism of urea and albumin, the production/detoxification of ammonia, and consumption of oxygen and nutrients. Since hepatocellular shear stress (SS) can influence the enzymatic activities of liver, the effect of SS on the urea and albumin synthesis are empirically modeled through the mechanotransduction mechanisms. The results demonstrate that the rheology and dynamics of the sinusoid flow can significantly affect... 

A new efficient catalytic system was investigated for the epoxidation of various olefins by cis-dioxo-bis[2-(2′-hydroxyphenyl)-oxazolinato]molybdenum(VI), cis-[MoO2(phox)2], and TBHP as oxidizing agent. Using this system as catalyst for the oxidation of aliphatic substrates at 80 °C gives the epoxide as the sole product with yields up to 100% and turnover frequency up to 5000 h-1. The efficiency of the catalyst is strongly influenced by the nature of solvent, reaction time and temperature, and a significant increase in the epoxide yields is observed in higher temperatures and longer reaction times. © 2009 Elsevier B.V  

Implementation of effective cancer treatment strategies requires consideration of how the spatiotemporal heterogeneities within the tumor microenvironment (TME) influence tumor progression and treatment response. Here, we developed a multi-scale three-dimensional mathematical model of the TME to simulate tumor growth and angiogenesis and then employed the model to evaluate an array of single and combination therapy approaches. Treatments included maximum tolerated dose or metronomic (i.e., frequent low doses) scheduling of anti-cancer drugs combined with anti-angiogenic therapy. The results show that metronomic therapy normalizes the tumor vasculature to improve drug delivery, modulates... 

Ostracism has been recognized as conceptually and empirically distinct from harassment. Drawing from theory and research that suggests that employees have a strong need to belong in their organizations, we examine the comparative frequency and impact of ostracism and harassment in organizations across three field studies. Study 1 finds that a wide range of employees perceive ostracism, compared with harassment, to be more socially acceptable, less psychologically harmful, and less likely to be prohibited in their organization. Study 2 surveyed employees from a variety of organizations to test our theory that ostracism is actually a more harmful workplace experience than harassment.... 

This work presents an innovative design for a flow-through dielectrophoretic cell sorting based on silicon bulk microelectrodes featuring sidewall undercuts. The microelectrodes are configured into an interdigitated array with digits extending across the flow chamber at an oblique angle against the flow stream. Target cells under dielectrophoretic forces and hydrodynamic drag can slide along the digits to a dedicated outlet. The design has been showcased for continuous-flow sorting of viable and non-viable mammalian cells, achieving a throughput of 16,600 cells/min, an order of magnitude higher than those reported for existing continuous-flow cell sorting designs using thin-film or... 

The search for efficient chemotherapy drugs and other anti-cancer treatments would benefit from a deeper understanding of the tumor microenvironment (TME) and its role in tumor progression. Because in vivo experimental methods are unable to isolate or control individual factors of the TME and in vitro models often do not include all the contributing factors, some questions are best addressed with systems biology mathematical models. In this work, we present a new fully-coupled, agent-based, multi-scale mathematical model of tumor growth, angiogenesis and metabolism that includes important aspects of the TME spanning subcellular-, cellular- and tissue-level scales. The mathematical model is... 

Sets of rosettes of stress probes have been performed on Hostun sand in a flexible boundary true triaxial apparatus. These have shown the effect of stress history on the local distortional stiffness of the sand. Histories have included isotropic compression, and deviatoric paths with increasingly complex shapes. These tests were performed and interpreted against a background of kinematic hardening and bounding surface plasticity, using stress response envelopes to reveal evolving distortional stiffness. Use of response envelopes to study volumetric stiffness appears to be less helpful but the phase transformation surfaces that can be extracted seem somewhat independent of recent stress... 

Atomic emission detection (AED) is a sensitive as well as a selective detection technique for gas chromatography (GC) and provides element-specific information. A rapidly increasing number of applications in many different areas illustrates the versatility and analytical power of the technique - especially when complex samples have to be analysed. The complementary use of GC-AED and GC with mass-spectrometric detection often yields the most rewarding results. © 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved  

Oil spills are serious environmental issues that potentially can cause adverse effects on marine ecosystems. In some marine areas, like the Baltic Sea, there is a large number of wrecks from the first half of the 20th century, and recent monitoring and field work have revealed release of oil from some of these wrecks. The risk posed by a wreck is governed by its condition, hazardous substances contained in the wreck and the state of the surrounding environment. Therefore, there is a need for a common standard method for estimating the risks associated with different wrecks. In this work a state-of-the-art model is presented for spatial and stochastic risk assessment of oil spills from... 

A resin-bound 1,2,4-triazolium ionic tag has been used as support for the preparation of solid palladium nanoparticles (Pd(0)-POLI-TAG-Pd). Owing to the pincer-type architecture of the triazolium ligand, the stabilization of a high amount of palladium nanoparticles (16 wt %) has been possible. The catalytic system has been fully characterized and used in low amounts (i.e., 0.1 mol % palladium loading) in representative Heck-Mizoroki cross-coupling processes. A negligible release of the metal was demonstrated, and a high activity was obtained over more runs. Besides, the protocol has been optimized for the use of safe biomass-derived γ-valerolactone reaction medium  

Novel molybdenum complex, cis-[MoO2(phox)2] has been synthesized and characterized by IR, 1H NMR, elemental analyses (CHN), and X-ray molecular structure determination methods. This complex was found to be an efficient, selective catalyst for the oxidation of various sulfides to sulfoxides with urea hydrogen peroxide (UHP) in excellent yields (100% for diallylsulfide) and short reaction times (20 min) at room temperature. The catalytic system oxidizes diallylsulfide chemoselectively to its corresponding sulfoxide without any over oxidation in double bond. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved  

Understanding the time water takes as it moves from rain or snowmelt through the terrestrial system to arrive as stream discharge, or evapotranspiration (ET) is an important hydrologic quantity. We develop a Lagrangian particle tracking method to capture transient residence times from source to either ET or outflow in an integrated hydrologic model. This method is parallel and efficiently captures time evolution of parcels of water in the model and tracks the source of water for hydrograph or ET separation. We demonstrate this model using hypothetical hillslope simulations driven by snow or rain dominated forcing and two different land cover types. We show that land cover and forcing both...