Sharif Digital Repository

In this research, a continuous microsolvent extraction-reaction was developed for the efficient separation of calcium ion. This study gives a preliminary possible practical application of microfluidic devices in chemical exchange reaction for enrichment of 48Ca stable isotope. For this purpose, in the first stage, the hydrodynamic behavior of two immiscible liquids in a simple Y-shaped microfluidic junction is experimentally investigated, and then ion-pair extraction-reaction of Ca2+ using picric acid as a counter-ion and dicyclohexano-18-crown-6 (DC18C6) as a lipophilic ionophore is studied in this microfluidic and conventional batch method. The impact of main process parameters, including... 

Tissue transglutaminase (TG2) is a unique multifunctional enzyme. The enzyme possesses enzymatic activities such as transamidation/crosslinking and non-enzymatic functions such as cell migration and signal transduction. TG2 has been shown to be involved in molecular mechanisms of cancers and several neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. The present study aimed at cloning and expression of full length human TG2 in Bac-to-Bac baculovirus expression system and evaluation of its activity. Methods: pFastBac HTA donor vector containing coding sequence of human TG2 was constructed. The construct was transformed to DH10Bac for generating recombinant bacmid. The verified bacmid was... 

Polyols were used as model ligands for Mg2+, Ca2+, and Zn2+ complexes to study the role of the hydrogen bond network on the metal binding affinity and modulation of successive pKa values using density functional theory. The results confirm that the acidity of polyols dramatically increases upon metal complexation in the order Zn2+ > Mg2+ > Ca2+. For example, the three H-site positions in the hydroxyl groups of the heptaol, bound to Zn2+, are 11.2, 29.9, and 30.9 pKa units (in methanol) more acidic than those of pure heptaol. This acidity enhancement leads to making polyols as good ligands toward complexation. For instance, the formation constants of the heptaol in the presence of Zn2+, Mg2+,... 

Smart water flooding as a developing technique utilizes modified water chemistry in terms of salinity and composition to prepare the best-suited brine composition for a specific brine/oil/rock system to obtain higher oil recovery efficiency. Huge amount of unrecovered oil is expected to be remained in carbonate reservoirs; however, few research works on incremental oil recovery during smart water injection in carbonate cores at reservoir condition are reported. Several core flooding tests using one of the Iranian carbonate reservoir rock are conducted to check the effectiveness of smart water injection for more oil recovery efficiency. The results reaffirm the positive effect of sulfate ions... 

The dissolution of plasma-sprayed hydroxyapatite (PHA) coatings with different characteristics, produced by various spraying conditions, in a Tris-buffered solution at pH 7.4 was experimentally studied through the measurement of the release of calcium ions. The phase composition of the coatings at surface and interface, and the porosity were evaluated. The analytical modeling revealed that the calcium dissolution process was composed of two stages. The first stage was found to be both surface and diffusion controlled. The second stage was an exactly diffusion-controlled dissolution. In the first stage, the rate of dissolution and the solubility of the coatings with minimum contents of... 

This work describes the preparation of magnetic and pH-sensitive beads based on κ-carrageenan and sodium alginate for use as drug-targeting carriers. Physical cross-linking using K+/Ca2+ ions was applied to obtain ionic cross-linked magnetic hydrogel beads. The produced magnetite beads were thoroughly characterized by TEM, SEM/EDS, XRD, FTIR, and VSM techniques. While the water absorbency (WA) of magnetic beads was enhanced by increasing the weight ratio of κ-carrageenan, introducing magnetic nanoparticles caused a decrease in WA capacity from 15.4 to 6.3 g/g. Investigation on the swelling of the hydrogel beads in NaCl, KCl, and CaCl2 solutions revealed the disintegration of beads depending... 

A novel microspherical adsorbent for the removal of uranium from aqueous solutions was developed by immobilizing of natural bentonite in the polymeric matrix of calcium alginate. Different uptake properties of the prepared microspheres were examined using batch, stirred and column methods. The adsorbent showed high affinity toward uranium ions, especially at pHs above 3. Major uptake mechanisms included ion exchange, chelating of the (UO2)2+ ions to the -OH groups of alginate, and surface complexation with bentonite. Surprisingly, the capacity of microspheres was higher than both its constituents, revealing that a synergetic effect occurs. Adsorption kinetics was controlled by slow chemical... 

Interaction of the DNA thymine base with Cu+ and Zn3+ was studied to explore: a) The metal binding energy (MIA) of thymine with Cu+ and Zn2+ and b) The possible correlation between charge transfer and MIAs. The gas-phase Cu+ and Zn2+ affinities of thymine, as well as the Mulliken charges, on the complexed metal cations were both determined at the same computational level, including the density functional level and employing the hybrid B3LYP exchange correlation potential in connection with the 6-311++G (d,p) basis set. All the molecular complexes were obtained by interaction between the most stable tautomer of thymine and two transition mono and divalent (Cu+, Zn2+) metal ions. To probe all... 

Despite previous researches on ion-engineered waterflooding (IEWF), its underlying mechanisms are not fully understood, particularly in presence of additives, like surfactants. This paper concerned with the contribution of Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ , SO 4 2- and Na + into altering wettability of oil-wet carbonate minerals towards water preferred state. As a mechanistic study, an experiment workflow was conducted to probe the impact of ions' concentrations in SW, either with or without sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate (SDBS) which is an anionic surfactant. At first, contact angle (CA) measurement was carried out to evaluate the degree of wettability reversal upon treating the oil-aged calcite slabs with... 

The Calcium ion Ca2+ plays a critical role as an initiator and preserving agent of the cross-bridge cycle in the force generation of skeletal muscle. A new multi-scale chemo-mechanical model is presented in order to analyze the role of Ca2+ in muscle fatigue and to predict fatigue behavior. To this end, a cross-bridge kinematic model was incorporated in a continuum based mechanical model, considering a thermodynamic compatible framework. The contractile velocity and the generated active force were directly related to the force-bearing states that were considered for the cross-bridge cycle. In order to determine the values of the model parameters, the output results of an isometric simulation... 

Because of the recent frequent observations of major dust storms in southwestern cities in Iran such as Ahvaz, and the importance of the ionic composition of particulate matters regarding their health effects, source apportionment, etc., the present work was conducted aiming at characterizing the ionic composition of total suspended particles (TSP) and particles on the order of ∼10 μm or less (PM10) during dust storms in Ahvaz in April-September 2010. TSP and PM10 samples were collected and their ionic compositions were determined using an ion chromatography. Mean concentrations of TSP and PM10 were 1,481.5 and 1,072.9 μg/m 3, respectively. Particle concentrations during the Middle Eastern... 

Over 60% of the world's discovered oil reserves are held in carbonate reservoirs, which are mostly naturally fractured. Conventional water flooding results in low oil recovery efficiency in these reservoirs as most of them are oil-wet. On account of negative capillary forces, injected brine cannot penetrate simply into an oil-wet matrix of fractured formations to force the oil out. Wettability alteration of the rock surface to preferentially more water-wet state has been extensively studied using both smart water and surfactants separately. This study aims to study the effects of Mg2+ as one of the most important wettability influencing ions on the wetting properties of oil-wet carbonate...