Mild desulfurization of sulfur-bearing materials

A method for the removal of sulfur from sulfur-bearing materials such as coal and petroleum products using organophosphine and organophosphite compounds is provided

EVALUATION OF PHYTASE PRODUCTION BY HYPOCREA LIXII SURT01 IN SUBMERGED AND SOLID-STATE FERMENTATIONS

Objective: Phytases have important applications in human and animal nutrition because they hydrolyze the phytate present in legumes, cereal grains and oil seeds to release inorganic phosphate. Supplementation of phosphate to the poultry causes a serious problem of eutrophication. This can be reduced by incorporating phytase in poultry feed. Present study explains extracellular phytase production by SmF and SSF from a fungal strain Hypocrea lixii SURT01. Methods: Extracellular phytase production by Hypocrea lixii SURT01 was evaluated in media containing various refined carbon sources (Fructose, Sucrose, Maltose and lactose in concentration ranging from 1.5% to 7.5%) along with standard medium under submerged fermentation (SmF). At the same time, phytase production was studied under Solid State Fermentation (SSF) with four different substrate such as barley, green gram, bengal gram and black gram. Results: In SmF out of different carbon sources in various concentrations, 6% sucrose showed maximum enzyme production (245U/ml). In SSF, barley showed highest phytase yield (1638 Units/ml) on 5th day of incubation. Conclusion: Evaluation of Solid state fermentation showed enhanced phytase production when compared to Submerged Fermentation

A multi-period game-theoretic approach to market fairness in oligopolies

Contemporary process industries are constantly confronted with volatile market conditions that jeopardise their financial sustainability. While mature markets transition to oligopoly structures, the supply chain operation should adapt to a more customer-centric focus. Key issues related to the modelling and impact of the related contractual agreements between firms and customers remain largely unexplored. In the present work, we examine the problem of fair customer allocation in oligopolies under different contractual agreements within a multi-period setting. We consider an ensemble of contract types that vary in terms of pricing mechanisms and duration. The role of fairness is examined following the social welfare and Nash bargaining scheme. In the latter case, the overall problem is formulated as an MINLP. For its efficient solution we employ a piecewise linearisation strategy based on special-ordered sets. The impact of the different fairness schemes on the optimal customer allocation is evaluated via two case studies from the industrial gases market

Design and fabrication of an intrinsically gain flattened Erbium doped fiber amplifier

We report design and subsequent fabrication of an intrinsically gain flattened Erbium doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) based on a highly asymmetrical and concentric dual-core fiber, inner core of which was only partially doped. Phase-resonant optical coupling between the two cores was so tailored through optimization of its refractive index profile parameters that the longer wavelengths within the C-band experience relatively higher amplification compared to the shorter wavelengths thereby reducing the difference in the well-known tilt in the gains between the shorter and longer wavelength regions. The fabricated EDFA exhibited a median gain ?28 dB (gain excursion below $\pm$2.2 dB within the C-band) when 16 simultaneous standard signal channels were launched by keeping the I/P level for each at ?20 dBm/ channel. Such EDFAs should be attractive for deployment in metro networks, where economics is a premium, because it would cut down the cost on gain flattening filter head

Performance and policy dimensions in internet routing

The Internet Routing Project, referred to in this report as the 'Highball Project', has been investigating architectures suitable for networks spanning large geographic areas and capable of very high data rates. The Highball network architecture is based on a high speed crossbar switch and an adaptive, distributed, TDMA scheduling algorithm. The scheduling algorithm controls the instantaneous configuration and swell time of the switch, one of which is attached to each node. In order to send a single burst or a multi-burst packet, a reservation request is sent to all nodes. The scheduling algorithm then configures the switches immediately prior to the arrival of each burst, so it can be relayed immediately without requiring local storage. Reservations and housekeeping information are sent using a special broadcast-spanning-tree schedule. Progress to date in the Highball Project includes the design and testing of a suite of scheduling algorithms, construction of software reservation/scheduling simulators, and construction of a strawman hardware and software implementation. A prototype switch controller and timestamp generator have been completed and are in test. Detailed documentation on the algorithms, protocols and experiments conducted are given in various reports and papers published. Abstracts of this literature are included in the bibliography at the end of this report, which serves as an extended executive summary

Single-dose pharmacokinetics of isoniazid and rifampicin in patients with chronic renal failure

The pharmacokinetics of Isoniazid and Rifampicin were studied in 18 patients with mild or moderate renal failure (creatinine clearance : 10.1-50.0 ml/min) and 17 patients with severe renal failure (creatinine clearance < 10.0 ml/min) and the findings compared with those in 16 healthy subjects. The renal excretion of Isoniazid, Acetylisoniazid, Rifampicin and Dcsacetylrifampicin was severely inhibited in patients with renal failure. Plasma Rifampicin and Isoniazid concentrations in rapid acetylators were similar in healthy subjects and both the groups of patients. In slow acetylators, plasma Isoniazid concentrations and exposure (AUC) and half-life of the drug, calculated on the basis of these concentrations were appreciably higher in patients than in healthy subjects (P < 0.01); the mean values in the two groups of patients were, however, similar. The correlations between plasma creatinine or creatinine clearance and peak concentration, exposure or half-life of Isoniazid were poor (r < 0.28) in the slow acetylators. These findings suggest that in patients with renal failure, it is not necessary to reduce dosage of Rifampicin or of Isoniazid in rapid acetylators but advisable in respect of Isoniazid in slow acetylators to lessen the risk of toxic reactions

E-HEALTH SERVICES IN HL7 STANDARD

Abstract: Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers. E-Health tools allow the construction of patientcentric Healthcare Service Providers that aim to support patients to access health related information, to prevent their possible diseases and to monitor their health status. The system builds a profile for each patient and uses it to detect Healthcare Service Providers delivering E-Health services potentially capable of satisfying the patient needs. The proposed system is HL7-aware represents both patient and service information according to the directives of HL7, the information management standard adopted in medical context. Once patients submit a query the proposed system retrieves a set of relevant services which satisfy the need of the patient. However EHealth is evolving into entities such as mobile health which focus on providing healthcare to people anywhere, anytime using broadband and wireless mobile technologies

Engineered optical nonlinearity for a quantum light source

Single-photon pairs created in the nonlinear process of spontaneous parametric downconversion form the backbone of fundamental and applied experimental quantum information science. Many applications benefit from careful spectral shaping of the single-photon wave-packets. In this paper we tailor the joint spectral wave-function of downconverted photons by modulating the nonlinearity of a poled crystal without affecting the phase-matching conditions. We designed a crystal with a Gaussian nonlinearity profile and confirmed successful wave-packet shaping by two-photon interference experiments. We numerically show how our method can be applied for attaining one of the currently most important goals of single-photon quantum optics, the creation of pure single photons without spectral correlations.Comment: 7 pages (4 pages + appendices), 5 figures. Minor formatting changes. Fixed typos. Some additional reference

The APOE ε4 allele is associated with a reduction in FEV1/FVC in women: A cross-sectional analysis of the Long Life Family Study

Introduction Murine studies have shown that apolipoprotein E modulates pulmonary function during development, aging, and allergen-induced airway disease. It is not known whether the polymorphic human APOE gene influences pulmonary function. Objectives We assessed whether an association exists between the polymorphic human APOE ε2, ε3, and ε4 alleles and pulmonary function among participants in the Long Life Family Study. Methods Data from 4,468 Caucasian subjects who had genotyping performed for the APOE ε2, ε3, and ε4 alleles were analyzed, with and without stratification by sex. Statistical models were fitted considering the effects of the ε2 allele, defined as ε2/2 or ε2/3 genotypes, and the ε4 allele, defined as ε3/4 or ε4/4 genotypes, which were compared to the ε3/3 genotype. Results The mean FEV1/FVC ratio (the forced expiratory volume in one second divided by the forced vital capacity) was lower among women with the ε4 allele as compared to women with the ε3/3 genotype or the ε2 allele. Carriage of the APOE ε4 allele was associated with FEV1/FVC, which implied lower values. Further analysis showed that the association primarily reflected women without lung disease who were older than 70 years. The association was not mediated by lipid levels, smoking status, body mass index, or cardiovascular disease. Conclusions This study for the first time identifies that the APOE gene is associated with modified lung physiology in women. This suggests that a link may exist between the APOE ε4 allele, female sex, and a reduction in the FEV1/FVC ratio in older individuals