Sharif Digital Repository

We introduce a new smooth, non-toxic, biocompatible method for cross-linking of gum tragacanth (GT), a polysaccharide of natural origin, in order to serve as a new supporting matrix for immobilization systems. The modified gum is used as a matrix for the catalysis of the conversion of benzyl penicillin to 6-aminopenicillanic acid (6-APA) by means of Escherichia coli ATCC11105 with penicillin G acylase (PGA) activity. The results show that GT beads can not only serve as a proper matrix for immobilization, but show enhanced hydrolysis rate and stability compared to other immobilization systems used for this reaction. This signifies the potential of GT as a biocompatible matrix for... 

In this study a Monte Carlo simulation was used to investigate the effect of cell reactivities and particle diffusivities in the cells and matrix on the diffusion and reaction rate constants in gel-immobilized cell systems with different spatial cell configurations. A variety of conditions were examined ranging from instantaneous to very slow reactions with reaction probabilities equal to or less than one, and diffusivity ratios bigger or smaller than one in a spherical domain. In the case of high reactivity (diffusion-limited), the simulation results indicated a decrease in the reaction rate constants when heterogeneity in the cell distribution was increased. In the case of low reactivity... 

Extraction of lipoxygenase-1 was investigated by using the aqueous two-phase system formed by sodium sulfate-poly(ethylene glycol)-buffer. The extraction was performed in a 47-mm inner diameter spray column, operating in a semibatch manner. The effects of dispersed-phase flow rate and phase compositions on fractional dispersed-phase hold up (εD) and volumetric masstransfer coefficient (KDa) were respectively studied. It was found that the hold-up and volumetric mass-transfer coefficient increased with an increase in dispersed-phase velocity and decreased with increasing phase composition. Correlations have been developed by nonlinear regression for estimation of fractional dispersed-phase... 

The immobilization of cellulase onto non-porous ultrafine silica particles was studied. Cellulase was extracted from a Trichoderma reesei culture after partial purification with ammonium sulfate (pH = 5.0), which was then immobilized onto non-porous ultrafine silica particles, with or without the use of glutaraldehyde as a crosslinking agent. Cellulase was immobilized by adsorption onto ultrafine silica particles efficiently, as well as by covalent cross-linking with glutaraldehysde. Increasing the concentration of the free form of enzyme increased the amount of immobilized cellulase. The maximum enzyme immobilization happened at the free enzyme concentration of 0.48 mg/ml. In general, the... 

E.coli was immobilized by entrapment within calcium alginate beads using cell suspensions of different concentrations. The immobilization procedure resulted in beads with a homogeneous cell distribution, referred to as a Non-overlapping Cell (NC) configuration. If cells within the beads were allowed to grow, the NC configuration would transform into a Clustered Cell (CC) configuration as a, result of cell growth. Enzyme activity and substrate conversion were obtained for NC and CC configurations of different cell density, using penicillin G acylation by penicillin G acylase, to produce. 6-amino penicillanic acid. Enzyme activity and conversion were found to depend on both cell concentration... 

Different techniques including toluene-ethanol, guanidine hydrochloride, guanidine hydrochloride-EDTA, lysozyme, lysozyme-EDTA and sonication treatments were used to extract penicillin G acylase from Escherichia coli ATCC 11105 cells. The obtained results show that penicillin G acylase extraction by guanidine-EDTA treatment is more specific in comparison to the other applied methods. The maximum specific activity of the enzyme (5.61 U/mg), i.e. the maximum purification was found when 1 M guanidine + 100 mM EDTA solution was used for penicillin G acylase extraction at culture condition including 0.50% (w/v) yeast extract as carbon source. In such a condition more than 95% of the enzyme was... 

The kinetics of the enzymic reaction of penicillin G acylase from a mutant of Escherichia coli ATCC 11105 in forward and reverse directions were studied and the kinetic constants determined. Results show that the enzyme is inhibited by excess substrate, penicillin G (Pen G), and by both products. The non-competitive inhibition by 6-aminopenicillanic acid (6-APA) and competitive inhibition by phenylacetic acid were observed for the ordered uni bi deacylation reaction in the forward direction. The optimum pH value for the reverse acylation reaction was 5.7. The bi uni mechanism for the reverse reaction was investigated and the inhibitory effects of the substrates, 6-APA and phenyl acetic acid,... 

In this paper, recovery of penicillin G from mycel-containing fermentation broth through physical extraction is investigated. The values of degree of extraction are evaluated as a function of media pH, partition coefficient between aqueous and organic phases for undissociated acid and the pKa of penicillin. The pH variations were measured during extraction operation and the optimum pH value for penicillin G recovery considering its decomposition was obtained. The mass transfer analysis of the extraction system was carried out using two-resistance mass transfer theory. The overall as well as aqueous and organic phase mass transfer coefficients were determined. The investigated mass transfer... 

In this paper, effects of pH, carbon and nitrogen sources, inducer, penicillin G, shaking and aeration rate on penicillin G acylase (PGA, EC 3.5.1.11) synthesis by Escherichia coli were studied and the optimum conditions for batch fermentation process were determined. The maximum activity of the enzyme and the biomass concentration were obtained at pH range of 8.0-9.0, with 250 rpm using 5 g.l-1 yeast extract as both carbon and nitrogen sources and 4 g.l-1 of phenyl acetic acid as the inducer. Addition of 0.2 g.l-1 penicillin G to the fermentation broth enhanced the enzyme production. The optimum aeration rate in the fermenter was obtained to be 0.85 vvm. The growth kinetics of PGA... 

The ability of Rhodococcus sp. P32C1 for desulfurization of n-hexadecane (n-C16) containing dibenzothiophene (DBT), and two different diesel oils is evaluated. Cells cultivated in the medium containing DBT of 0.1 mM showed higher desulfurization activity, and the effects of cell concentration on the desulfurization reaction were studied. Three hydrocarbon-aqueous phase ratios of 25, 50 and 75 vol.% were used for desulfurization of n-C16 containing 1 and 24mM of DBT as a sulfur source. The maximum specific production rate of 2-hydroxybiphenyl (2-HBP) in two-phase system was 43.5 mmol/(kg dry cell.h). Based on the optimum conditions determined for desulfurization of n-C16, diesel oils with... 

Immobilization of enzymes on nonporous supports provides a suitable model for investigating the effect of external mass transfer limitation on the reaction rate in the absence of internal diffusional resistance. In this study, deacylation of penicillin G was investigated using penicillin acylase immobilized on ultrafine silica particles. Kinetic studies were performed within the low-substrate-concentration region, where the external mass transfer limitation becomes significant. To predict the apparent kinetic parameters and the overall effectiveness factor, knowledge of the external mass transfer coefficient, kLa, is necessary. Although various correlations exist for estimation of kLa, in... 

A novel intelligent semi-active control system for an eleven degrees of freedom passenger car's suspension system using magnetorheological (MR) damper with neuro-fuzzy (NF) control strategy to enhance desired suspension performance is proposed. In comparison with earlier studies, an improvement in problem modeling is made. The proposed method consists of two parts: a fuzzy control strategy to establish an efficient controller to improve ride comfort and road handling (RCH) and an inverse mapping model to estimate the force needed for a semi-active damper. The fuzzy logic rules are extracted based on Sugeno inference engine. The inverse mapping model is based on an artificial neural network... 

Using CNG as an additive for gasoline is a proper choice due to higher octane number of CNG enriched gasoline with respect to that of gasoline. As a result, it is possible to use gasoline with lower octane number in the engine. This would also mean the increase of compression ratio in SI engines resulting in higher performance and lower gasoline consumption. Over the years, the use of simulation codes to model the thermodynamic cycle of an internal combustion engine have developed tools for more efficient engine designs and fuel combustion. In this study, a thermodynamic cycle simulation of a conventional four-stroke spark-ignition engine has been developed. The model is used to study the... 

With the declining energy resources and increase of pollutant emissions, a great deal of efforts has been focused on the development of alternatives for fossil fuels. One of the promising alternative fuels to gasoline in the internal combustion engine is natural gas [1-5]. The application of natural gas in current internal combustion engines is realistic due to its many benefits. The higher thermal efficiency due to the higher octane value and lower exhaust emissions including CO2 as a result of the lower carbon to hydrogen ratio of the fuel are the two important feature of using CNG as an alternative fuel. It is well known that computer simulation codes are valuable economically as a cost... 

Gaining insight into possible vibratory responses of dynamical systems around their stable equilibria is an essential step, which must be taken before their design and application. The results of such a study can significantly help prevent instability in closed-loop stabilized systems by avoiding the excitation of the system in the neighborhood of its resonance. This paper investigates nonlinear oscillations of a rotary inverted pendulum (RIP) with a full-state feedback controller. Lagrange’s equations are employed to derive an accurate 2-DoF mathematical model, whose parameter values are extracted by both the measurement and 3D modeling of the real system components. Although the governing... 

A suction-controlled ring device has been developed to continuously measure the coefficient of lateral soil pressure in deformable unsaturated soil samples from the at-rest to the active condition under application of increasing vertical pressure and controlled matric suction. The device incorporates a thin aluminum specimen ring equipped with horizontal strain gages for recording the lateral soil strains. In addition, a sensor recording water volume changes is utilized to continuously monitor the degree of saturation of the soil sample during tests. The matric suction within the soil texture is controlled using the axis translation technique. In order to verify the performance of the ring... 

The Class-E power amplifier has been widely studied and formulated in the literature. Although the majority of reported inductive coupling wireless power transfer (WPT) systems use a class-E power amplifier for driving the primary coil, still there is a lack of a comprehensive study on class-E circuit dedicated to WPT, providing a set of closed form design equations for proper class-E operation. This paper presents the required design equations needed to design a 'true' class-E circuit for WPT applications. Equations for the series-tuned secondary coil WPT system are presented, as well as two different design procedures for the parallel-tuned secondary coil. The derived equations have been... 

Pole Side Impact Tes is one out of three crash tests described by Euro NCAP standard for star rating of a vehicle and is required for assessing the Adult Occupant Protection. In this paper the goal is to determine the crashworthiness of side doors and B pillar in a Pole Side Impact Test based on Euro New Car Assessment Program (Euro-NCAP) using computer and simulation method. In this matter, a vehicle model has been prepared and meshed using Hypermesh and CATIA. The velocity of 29 km/h has been assigned to the vehicle which was on top of a cart while the pole has been assigned as a rigid static object based on Euro NCAP requirements specifically. Results show that different amounts of energy... 

To assess a car under the Euro New Car Assessment Program (Euro-NCAP), Adult Occupant Protection is one out of three parameters which need to be calculated with a weight factor of 50% while the other parameters, Child Occupant Protection and Pedestrian Occupant Protection, have a weight factor of 20%. The Pole Side Impact Test, beside two other tests, Side and Front Impact, is also required to calculate the Adult Occupant Protection. It shows how important the Pole Side Impact Test is and what an effective role it has in the car rating assessment. In this paper, the objective is to evaluate the effect of thickness on the energy absorbed by the side doors and the B pillar and its... 

In Euro NCAP standard, adult protection is one of the most important rating scores with 50% weight factor while child protection and pedestrian protection are accounted into consideration with 20% weight factor. For adult protection testing, three tests are required to perform: (1) side impact, (2) pole impact, (3) front impact. In the side impact test, dummy's head, chest, shoulder, thorax, ribs, abdomen, pelvic and femur must be studied to evaluate the rating score. Crashworthiness of a car during side impact can describe the score rated for that car. In this paper the goal is to determine the crashworthiness of side doors and B-pillar in side impact crash est by simulation using LS DYNA...