Sharif Digital Repository

Monomer grafting, a unique technique for polysaccharide modification, is always performed under inert (e.g., N2) atmosphere. This work is the first report related to evaluating the possibility and efficiency of the grafting of acrylonitrile (AN) onto starch in presence of oxygen. Thus, corn starch (in both granular and gelatinized states) as well as soluble starch were grafted by AN using a ceric-carbohydrate redox initiating system. Graft copolymerizations were performed under nitrogen, air, and oxygen atmospheres at similar conditions. Grafting occurrence was verified using chemical and spectral proofs. The polymerization mechanism and kinetics were investigated by recording the... 

Acrylonitrile (AN) was grafted onto various natural and modified polysaccharides (i.e., gum arabic, gum tragacanth, xanthan gum, sodium alginate, chitosan, sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, hydroxyethyl cellulose, methyl cellulose) by using ceric-carbohydrate redox initiating system. After overcoming practical problems, mainly from the high viscosity of the aqueous solutions of the different substrates, the graft copolymerization reactions were run either in air or in N2 atmosphere under similar conditions. Grafting was confirmed using chemical and spectral (FTIR) proofs. The reactions were kinetically investigated using semi-empirical expressions and time-temperature profiles. An anomalous... 

Molecules acting as antioxidants capable of scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS) are of upmost importance in the living cell. Thymol derivatives exhibit various antioxidant activities and potential health benefits. Exploration of structure-radical scavenging activity (SAR) was approached with a wide range of thymol derivatives. To accomplish this task, the DPPH experimental assay along with quantum-chemical calculations were also employed for these compounds. By comparing the structural properties of the derivatives of interest, their antioxidant activity was explained by the formation of an intramolecular hydrogen bond and the presence of unsaturated double bond (–CHdouble bond; length... 

A high silica CHA-type membrane was synthesized by the in-situ crystallization method on a disk like α-alumina porous support to separate both acid (H2S, CO2) gases from methane. The membrane showed a permeance of 3.39×10-8mol/m2sPa for pure CO2with CO2/CH4 ideal selectivity of 21.6 at 303K and 100kPa pressure difference across the membrane. The membrane was also tested with N2 and O2 pure gases indicating a small O2/N2 selectivity of 1.2-1.4, which shows that this type of membrane is not suitable for O2/N2 separation. The membrane performance was also analyzed by binary (CO2-CH4) and ternary (H2S-CO2-CH4) gas mixtures, with compositions near the real sour natural gas (CO2: 2.13mol%, H2S:... 

In this paper, a two-dimensional, two-phase, non-isothermal model is presented to predict the electrochemical, mass transfer and heat transfer behaviors in a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). Governing equations including the momentum, continuity, heat transfer, proton and electron transport, species transport for water, methanol, and all the gas species (carbon dioxide, methanol vapor, water vapor, oxygen, and nitrogen) and the auxiliary equations are coupled to studying the various phenomena in DMFC. The modeling results agree well with the four different experimental data in an extensive range of operation conditions. A parametric study is also performed to examine the effects of the cell... 

In this work, the electrophoretic deposition method was utilized to immobilize TiO2 particles on stainless steel substrates. In addition, for the first time, statistics-based experimental design using response surface methodology was employed to investigate the effect of four key coating parameters (i.e. applied voltage, calcination temperature, photocatalyst weight percentage, and deposition time) on the photocatalytic degradation. Analysis of variance revealed that the proposed model was adequate. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope were used to evaluate the effects of the parameters on degradation efficiency. The optimum applied voltage, calcination temperature, catalyst... 

A reduction in catalyst's activity with time-on-stream and the formation of side products are two of the problems associated with catalytic propane dehydrogenation (PDH). Previous studies have indicated that the presence of small amounts of oxygenated additives such as water can reduce coke formation and enhance catalyst activity. The aim of the present work was to develop an appropriate kinetic model for PDH over a commercial Pt-Sn/γ-Al 2O3 catalyst in the presence of small amounts of water. Experimental data were obtained from a previous study where catalytic PDH was carried out in a bench scale reactor system at atmospheric pressure in the temperature range of 575-620°C in the presence of... 

Poly(lactic acid) (PLA)/poly(vinyl acetate-. co-vinyl alcohol) [P(VAc-. co-VA)] blends as new transparent film packaging materials were prepared at various blend compositions and different vinyl alcohol contents. The blends and pure PLA were irradiated by gamma rays to investigate the extent of changes in the packaging material during gamma ray sterilization process. The miscibility of the blends was dependent on the blend composition and vinyl alcohol content; gamma irradiation had little effect on the extent of miscibility. The glass transition temperature of pure PLA and PLA/P(VAc-. co-VA) miscible blends reduced after irradiation. On the other hand in PLA/P(VAc-. co-VA) immiscible... 

The details of the crystal structure of the recently discovered Y 3Ba5Cu8O18+δ (Y358) superconductor have been determined by ab initio density functional theory. Total energy calculation has been performed for three different suggested structures with different oxygen content. The structure with a center of inversion symmetry and the highest oxygen concentration has the lowest total energy. Thus, it is the best choice for the Y358 crystal structure. By investigating the detailed structure, it is seen that this compound is arranged either of YBa2Cu3O7 and YBaCu2O 5 or YBaCu2O5 and BaCuO2 substructural blocks in the c direction. The difference between the total energy of Y358 compound and the... 

Body weight is influenced by both food intake and energy expenditure. Acylated ghrelin enhances appetite, and its circulating level is suppressed by Growth Hormone. Data on the acylated ghrelin responses to exercise of different intensities in obese individuals are currently not available. This study examined the effects of an intermittent exercise protocol on acylated ghrelin levels and hunger ratings in obese people. Nine inactive male ran on the treadmill at 0900 with progressive intensities of 50, 60, 70, and 80% of VO2max for 10, 10, 5, and 2 min respectively. Blood samples were collected before the exercise at 0845 (-15 min as the resting values), after each workload (10, 23, 31, and... 

Concentration-dependent cyto and genotoxicities of graphene oxide (GO) and reduced GO (rGO) sheets on spermatozoa were studied. rGO sheets with various surface chemical states were achieved using hydrazine (N2H 4) hydrothermal (HT) reactions and green tea polyphenols (GTPs). Although 0.1 μg mL-1 graphene could not change sperm viability and kinetic parameters, <40% and 20% of spermatozoa were viable and progressively motile, after 2 h incubation with 400 μg mL-1 GO or rGO, respectively. All the graphene nanomaterials induced concentration- dependent reductions of adenosine triphosphate and NAD+/NADH produced by spermatozoa for motility and metabolic activity. While GO, N 2H4-rGO, and HT-rGO... 

Performance of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) at high current densities is limited to transport reactants and products. Furthermore, large amounts of water are generated and may be condensed due to the low temperature of the PEMFC. Development of a two-phase flow model is necessary in order to predict water flooding and its effects on the PEMFC performance. In this paper, a multiphase mixture model (M2) is used, accurately, to model two-phase transport in porous media of a PEMFC. The cathode side, which includes channel, gas diffusion layer (GDL), microporous layer (MPL), and catalyst layer (CL), is considered as the computational domain. A multidomain approach has been used... 

Intracellular production of recombinant proteins in prokaryotes necessitates subsequent disruption of cells for protein recovery. Since the cell disruption and subsequent purification steps largely contribute to the total production cost, scalable tools for protein release into the extracellular space is of utmost importance. Although there are several ways for enhancing protein release, changing culture conditions is rather a simple and scalable approach compared to, for example, molecular cell design. This contribution aimed at quantitatively studying process technological means to boost protein release of a periplasmatic recombinant protein (alkaline phosphatase) from E. coli.... 

A novel implementation of a membrane bioreactor (MBR) has been studied in this paper. It is utilised as combination of rotating biological contractor (RBC) and an external membrane for oily wastewater treatment. The performance of MBR was compared with the standalone RBC. The RBC used in this investigation is the same one combined with the membrane to form the MBR. Wastewater biodegradability has been evaluated by two factors: chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH). They are both compared together for different hydraulic retention times (HRTs) and petroleum pollution concentrations in RBC and MBR. The ratio of TPH to COD of molasses has been varied between 0.2 to... 

Blood oxygenation is the main performance characteristic of capillary membrane oxygenators (CMOs). Handling of natural blood in in vitro investigations of CMOs is quite complex and time-consuming. Since the conventional blood analog fluids (e.g. water/glycerol) lack a substance with an affinity to capture oxygen comparable to hemoglobin's affinity, in this study a novel approach using modified sulfite solution is proposed to address this challenge. The solution comprises sodium sulfite as a component, simulating the role of hemoglobin in blood oxygenation. This approach is validated by OTR (oxygen transfer rate) measured using native porcine blood, in two types of commercially available... 

Pichia pastoris is used extensively as a production platform for many recombinant proteins. The dissolved oxygen (DO) is one of the most important factors influencing protein production. The influence of the DO on productivity has not been studied independent from the feed rate. In this work, various DO levels were investigated independent from the feed rate. The model system was recombinant P. pastoris under the control of methanol-induced alcohol oxidase promoter, which expressed HRP as the target protein. No significant effect was observed in terms of titer and specific productivity, which is a confirmation of the fact that the DO in a one-compartment system cannot boost productivity for... 

Superparamagnetic zinc ferrite spinel-graphene nanostructures were synthesized as potential therapeutic agents in the magnetic targeted photothermal therapy of cancer and/or drug delivery. The global temperature of the solution and the local temperature at the nanoparticle (NP) surface determine the protein corona composition/content, which in turn affects the biological effects of NPs and the corresponding physiological responses. Therefore, it is rational to hypothesize that spinel-graphene nanostructures may have distinct protein corona compositions and contents, and therapeutic and toxic effects under laser irradiation. To assess this hypothesis, the effects of laser irradiation on the... 

Background: In the recent study, optimum operational conditions of cathode compartment of microbial fuel cell were determined by using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) with a central composite design to maximize power density and COD removal. Methods: The interactive effects of parameters such as, pH, buffer concentration and ionic strength on power density and COD removal were evaluated in two-chamber microbial batch-mode fuel cell. Results: Power density and COD removal for optimal conditions (pH of 6.75, buffer concentration of 0.177 M and ionic strength of cathode chamber of 4.69 mM) improve by 17 and 5%, respectively, in comparison with normal conditions (pH of 7, buffer concentration... 

An industrial-scale reactor for ethylene production was modeled using the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane (ODHE) in a multi-tubular reactor system, examining a variety of parameters affecting reactor performance. The model showed that a double-bed multi-tubular reactor with intermediate air injection scheme was superior to a single-bed design, due to the increased ethylene selectivity while operating under lower oxygen partial pressures. The optimized reactor length for 100% oxygen conversion was theoretically determined for both reactor designs. The use of a distributed oxygen feed with a limited number of injection points indicated a significant improvement on the reactor performance... 

Monitoring the respiratory signal is crucial in many medical applications. Traditional methods for the respiration measurement are normally based on measuring the volume of air inhaled and exhaled by lungs (like spirometer) or oxygen saturation in blood. However, these methods have numerous challenges including their high cost and not being accessible in some cases. In this paper, an algorithm for deriving the respiratory signal from ECG signal is proposed, which is based on other proposed algotithms. This algorithm uses the cubic spline interpolation (CSI) of R-waves in ECG to derive the respiratory signal. The CSI algorithm is made efficient with respect to ECG features in order to reduce...