Clarification of a wheat straw‐derived medium with ion‐exchange resins for xylitol crystallization

BACKGROUND: Xylitol bioproduction from lignocellulosic residues comprises hydrolysis of the hemicellulose, detoxification of the hydrolysate, bioconversion of the xylose, and recovery of xylitol from the fermented hydrolysate. There are relatively few reports on xylitol recovery from fermented media. In the present study, ion‐exchange resins were used to clarify a fermented wheat straw hemicellulosic hydrolysate, which was then vacuum‐concentrated and submitted to cooling in the presence of ethanol for xylitol crystallization. RESULTS: Sequential adsorption into two anion‐exchange resins (A‐860S and A‐500PS) promoted considerable reductions in the content of soluble by‐products (up to 97.5%) and in medium coloration (99.5%). Vacuum concentration led to a dark‐colored viscous solution that inhibited xylitol crystallization. This inhibition could be overcome by mixing the concentrated medium with a commercial xylitol solution. Such a strategy led to xylitol crystals with up to 95.9% purity. The crystallization yield (43.5%) was close to that observed when using commercial xylitol solution (51.4%). CONCLUSION: The experimental data demonstrate the feasibility of using ion‐exchange resins followed by cooling in the presence of ethanol as a strategy to promote the fast recovery and purification of xylitol from hemicellulose‐derived fermentation media. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry     

Fast Full-Band Device Simulator for Wurtzite and Zincblende GaN MESFET Using a Cellular Monte Carlo Method

A fast full-band device simulator for wurtzite and zincblende GaN using a Cellular Monte Carlo (CMC) approach is reported for wurtzite and zincblende GaN. The full-phonon dispersion relationship including anisotropic polar-optical phonon scattering is taken into account for the wurtzite GaN calculation. In the bulk simulation, the CMC model is about 30–100 times faster than the conventional Ensemble Monte Carlo model at high electric field region. This CMC model is applied to the simulator of MESFET devices, and the calculation speed is significantly improved.     

Interobl: An interactive software tool for displaying and scaling oblique ionograms

By analyzing an oblique ionogram several characteristics, such as LOF, MOF, FMUF, FHLOF, FLLOF, and 2FMOF, can be found. These characteristics are important both for ionospheric studies and for terrestrial communication purposes, as they give information about the sky wave communication conditions in the High Frequency (HF) radio spectrum.A RCS-5B sweeping HF receiver for oblique sounding was installed at Chania (Crete, Greece, 35.7°N, 24.0°E) in April 2005 to perform a radio link with Inskip (UK, 53.5°N, 2.5°W). The receiver, able to record the sounding only as a binary file, was not equipped with a tool to display and scale the recorded trace. This work describes software that is able to do this, consequently increasing the speed of the scaling phase performed by the operator. The usefulness of this software for validating FMUF prediction models is also shown.     

On the relationships among latent variables and residuals in PLS path modeling: The formative-reflective scheme

A new approach for the estimation and the validation of a structural equation model with a formative-reflective scheme is presented. The basis of the paper is a proposal for overcoming a potential deficiency of PLS path modeling. In the PLS approach the reflective scheme assumed for the endogenous latent variables (LVs) is inverted; moreover, the model errors are not explicitly taken into account for the estimation of the endogenous LVs. The proposed approach utilizes all the relevant information in the formative manifest variables (MVs) providing solutions which respect the causal structure of the model. The estimation procedure is based on the optimization of the redundancy criterion. The new approach, entitled redundancy analysis approach to path modeling (RA-PM) is compared with both traditional PLS Path Modeling and LISREL methodology, on the basis of real and simulated data.     

The role of carbon deposition on precious metal catalyst activity during dry reforming of biogas

Gold and palladium were supported on a mesoporous TiO₂ for total oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Mesoporous high surface area titania support was synthesised using of Ti(OC₂H₅)₂ in the presence of CTMABr surfactant. After removing the surfactant molecules, 0.5 or 1.5 wt% of palladium and 1 wt% of gold were precipitated on the support by, respectively, wet impregnation and deposition–precipitation methods. The activity for toluene and propene total oxidation of the prereduced samples follows the same order: 0.5%Pd-1%Au/TiO₂ > 1.5%Pd/TiO₂ > 0.5%Pd/TiO₂ > 1%Au-0.5%Pd/TiO₂ > 1%Au/TiO₂ > TiO₂. Moreover, a catalytic comparison with samples based on a conventional TiO₂, shows the catalytic advantage of the mesoporous TiO₂ support. The promotional effect of gold added to palladium could be partly explained by small metallic particles (TEM), but meanly by metallic particles made up of Au-rich core with a Pd-rich shell. Moreover, the hydrogen TPR profile of 0.5%Pd-1%Au/TiO₂ shows only the signal attributed to small PdO particles. Gold also implies a protecting effect of the support under reduction atmosphere. Operando diffuse reflectance infrared fourier transform (DRIFT) spectroscopy was carried on and allowed to follow the VOCs oxidation and the formation of coke molecules, but also a metallic electrodonor effect to the adsorbed molecule which increases in the same order as the activity for oxidation reaction. The presence of coke after test was also shown by DTA–TGA by exothermic signals between 300 and 500 °C and by EPR (g = 2.003).     

国外家庭的智能化生活方式

在国外，数字革命使信息交换变的极为方便：人们可以把一个小型企业装进背包。一辆普通的出租汽车也可以变成一个完整的电信中心。司机可以在出租车内接听电话、接收传真和收发电子邮件，甚至向世界各地发送图像。更妙的是，汽车可以与一个声控卫星导航系统相连，这个系统可以随时把最佳行驶路线告诉司机。     

Nonlinear Creep Damage Model for Concrete under Uniaxial Compression

An isotropic model for creep damage of concrete under uniaxial compression is proposed, where the combined effect of nonlinear viscous strain evolution and crack nucleation and propagation at high stress levels is considered. Strain splitting assumption is used for creep and damage contributions. Creep is modeled by a modified version of solidification theory. As usual in the modeling of damage of concrete, a damage index based on positive strains is introduced. As particular cases, the proposed model reduces to linear viscoelasticity for long time low stress levels whereas, for very high stresses, tertiary creep causing failure at a finite time can be described. The effect of strength variation with time is also included. The model is numerically implemented to perform time integration of nonlinear equations by means of a modified version of exponential algorithm. The model is validated through comparison with experimental results. Some numerical examples are also presented, where the roles of concrete ageing and strength variation with time are investigated.