The RTU Graduate School Executive Master's Program for school year 2011-2012 as viewed by its respondents

This study was conducted to ascertain the views and opinions of the faculty and personnel as recipients of the Rizal Technological University (RTU) Graduate School Executive Master's program as to its reasons for availment, importance of the core and major subjects of the curriculum, lecturers' professional skills, duration/time allotment, level of satisfaction, significant difference of the two programs, problem encountered and gathered possible solutions to the problems; determine whether the Executive Master's Program was able to realize its goals and objectives and find out the overall impression of the recipients about the Executive Master's Program. A total of fifty (50) RTU faculty and personnel graduated from this Executive Master's program, twenty six (26) Master of Arts in Education (MAEd) and twenty four (24) Master of Arts in Engineering (MAE)

Atomic Details of the Interactions of Glycosaminoglycans with Amyloid-β Fibrils

The amyloid plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) comprise fibrillar amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides as well as non-protein factors including glycosaminoglycan (GAG) polysaccharides. GAGs affect the kinetics and pathway of Aβ self-assembly and can impede fibril clearance; thus, they may be accessory molecules in AD. Here we report the first high-resolution details of GAG-Aβ fibril interactions from the perspective of the saccharide. Binding analysis indicated that the GAG proxy heparin has a remarkably high affinity for Aβ fibrils with 3-fold cross-sectional symmetry (3Q). Chemical synthesis of a uniformly 13C-labeled octasaccharide heparin analogue enabled magic-angle spinning solid-state NMR of the GAG bound to 3Q fibrils, and measurements of dynamics revealed a tight complex in which all saccharide residues are restrained without undergoing substantial conformational changes. Intramolecular 13C-15N dipolar dephasing is consistent with close (<5 Å) contact between GAG anomeric position(s) and one or more histidine residues in the fibrils. These data provide a detailed model for the interaction between 3Q-seeded Aβ40 fibrils and a major non-protein component of AD plaques, and they reveal that GAG-amyloid interactions display a range of affinities that critically depend on the precise details of the fibril architecture

Intensified and safe ozonolysis of fatty acid methyl esters in liquid CO2 in a continuous reactor

We demonstrate a continuous reactor for performing the ozonolysis of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) using liquid CO2 as solvent. The fast reaction kinetics allows the use of small-volume reactors to completely convert the FAMEs, forming secondary ozonides as the primary products. The short residence times also help maximize the yields of the secondary ozonides by minimizing over-oxidation and the formation of oligomeric products. The liquid CO2 medium promotes safe reactor operation by providing an essential fraction of overall reactor cooling and by diluting the vapor phase organics. We also demonstrate a continuous stirred reactor for the safe thermal decomposition of the secondary ozonides to their corresponding acids and aldehydes. Using a lumped kinetic model for the thermal decomposition of the ozonolysis products, we estimate activation energy values of 108.6 +/- 0.6 kJ mol(-1) for the decomposition of secondary ozonides and 122 +/- 3 kJ mol(-1) for the decomposition of the undesired oligomeric species. (c) 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 2819-2826, 201

OVERGRID: A Unified Overset Grid Generation Graphical Interface

This paper presents a unified graphical interface and gridding strategy for performing overset grid generation. The interface called OVERGRID has been specifically designed to follow an efficient overset gridding strategy, and contains general grid manipulation capabilities as well as modules that are specifically suited for overset grids. General grid utilities include functions for grid redistribution, smoothing, concatenation, extraction, extrapolation, projection, and many others. Modules specially tailored for overset grids include a seam curve extractor, hyperbolic and algebraic surface grid generators, a hyperbolic volume grid generator, and a Cartesian box grid generator, Grid visualization is achieved using OpenGL while widgets are constructed with Tcl/Tk. The software is portable between various platforms from UNIX workstations to personal computers

Liquid CO2 as a safe and benign solvent for the ozonolysis of fatty acid methyl esters

We have shown that liquid CO2 dissolves O3 in higher concentrations compared to conventional solvents and is therefore an effective medium for the ozonolysis of unsaturated compounds. The Beer–Lambert law extinction coefficient for ozone in liquid CO2 is determined to be 3.2 ± 0.3 M–1 cm–1. Further, the Henry’s law coefficient for ozone dissolution in dense phase CO2 is determined to be on the order of 0.25 mol L–1 bar–1 in the temperature range −10 to +4 °C. Rapid ozonolysis of methyl oleate in liquid CO2 has been successfully demonstrated with the 1,2,4-trioxolanes (secondary ozonides) being the major stable product, as confirmed by NMR analysis. The product distribution is consistent with a lack of solvent cage effects due to the low polarity of liquid CO2. In addition to the inertness of liquid CO2 to ozone attack, the dominant presence of dense CO2 in the vapor phase promotes inherent process safety

Liquid CO₂ as a Safe and Benign Solvent for the Ozonolysis of Fatty Acid Methyl Esters

We have shown that liquid CO₂ dissolves O₃ in higher concentrations compared to conventional solvents and is therefore an effective medium for the ozonolysis of unsaturated compounds. The Beer–Lambert law extinction coefficient for ozone in liquid CO₂ is determined to be 3.2 ± 0.3 M^–1 cm^–1. Further, the Henry’s law coefficient for ozone dissolution in dense phase CO₂ is determined to be on the order of 0.25 mol L^–1 bar^–1 in the temperature range −10 to +4 °C. Rapid ozonolysis of methyl oleate in liquid CO₂ has been successfully demonstrated with the 1,2,4-trioxolanes (secondary ozonides) being the major stable product, as confirmed by NMR analysis. The product distribution is consistent with a lack of solvent cage effects due to the low polarity of liquid CO₂. In addition to the inertness of liquid CO₂ to ozone attack, the dominant presence of dense CO₂ in the vapor phase promotes inherent process safety

Continuous hydroformylation with phosphine-functionalized polydimethylsiloxane rhodium complexes as nanofilterable homogeneous catalysts

Commercially available polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was functionalized with phosphine and used to form a Rh complex catalyst. The PDMS-based Rh catalyst complex shows promise as an inexpensive, readily synthesized and nanofilterable homogeneous catalyst for performing continuous hydroformylation. Batch hydroformylation of several substrates including 1-octene, 1-decene, 1-dodecene and styrene showed good activity and selectivity. For 1-octene hydroformylation, the observed catalyst activity with the PDMS-based Rh complex is 2-fold greater compared to that with a conventional Rh-triphenylphosphine complex under similar conditions. Continuous 1-octene hydroformylation for up to 120 h was demonstrated in a membrane nanofiltration system, showing stable conversion (∼60%) and high chemoselectivity (>95%). The total turnover number (TON) after 120 h was approximately 12 000 and the permeate Rh concentration was <2 ppm