Ethanol as a Subgroup of the UNIFAC Model in the Prediction of Liquid-Liquid Equilibrium in Food and Fuel Systems

Ethanol has been employed as a solvent in biodiesel production and vegetable oil refining since it is more economically attractive and less toxic than methanol and hexane. Furthermore, ethanol has demonstrated easy recovery, good selectivity, and distribution coefficient for free fatty acids (FFA), which is the primary target in the refining process since high acidity oil can lead to the formation of side products. As the knowledge of phase equilibrium behavior of fatty systems is essential to design and optimize the extraction of FFA, this chapter will present two new UNIFAC subgroups for ethanol: EtOH-B, focused on biodiesel production; and EtOH-D, focused on the deacidification process. Except for ethanol and water subgroups fitted in this study, all remaining UNIFAC parameters were taken from the literature. The new EtOH-B and EtOH-D parameters provide a considerably lower mean square error (1.20% and 0.87%) than the other works available in the literature. The results show that new ethanol subgroups and the developed methodology are valuable tools in predicting liquid-liquid phase equilibrium for ethyl biodiesel and vegetable oil deacidification systems considered, resulting in reduced computational calculations and a relatively small split with the complex dataset established by the UNIFAC-LL model

Tuning Proton Conductivity in Alkali Metal Phosphonocarboxylates by Cation Size-Induced and Water-Facilitated Proton Transfer Pathways

The structural and functional chemistry of a family of alkali-metal ions with racemic R,S-hydroxyphosphonoacetate (M-HPAA; M = Li, Na, K, Cs) are reported. Crystal structures were determined by X-ray data (Li+, powder diffraction following an ab initio methodology; Na+, K+, Cs+, single crystal). A gradual increase in dimensionality directly proportional to the alkali ionic radius was observed. [Li3(OOCCH(OH)PO3)-(H2O)4]·H2O (Li-HPAA) shows a 1D framework built up by Li-ligand “slabs” with Li+ in three different coordination environments (4-, 5-, and 6-coordinated). Na-HPAA, Na2(OOCCH(OH)PO3H)(H2O)4, exhibits a pillared layered “house of cards” structure, while K-HPAA, K2(OOCCH(OH)PO3H)(H2O)2, and Cs-HPAA, Cs(HOOCCH(OH)-PO3H), typically present intricate 3D frameworks. Strong hydrogen-bonded networks are created even if no water is present, as is the case in Cs-HPAA. As a result, all compounds show proton conductivity in the range 3.5 × 10−5 S cm−1 (Cs-HPAA) to 5.6 × 10−3 S cm−1 (Na-HPAA) at 98% RH and T = 24 °C. Differences in proton conduction mechanisms, Grothuss (Na+ and Cs+) or vehicular (Li+ and K+), are attributed to the different roles played by water molecules and/or proton transfer pathways between phosphonate and carboxylate groups of the ligand HPAA. Upon slow crystallization, partial enrichment in the S enantiomer of the ligand is observed for Na-HPAA, while the Cs-HPAA is a chiral compound containing only the S enantiomer.Proyectos nacionales MAT2010-15175 y MAT2013-41836-

Industrial, Collaborative and Mobile Robotics in Latin America: Review of Mechatronic Technologies for Advanced Automation

Mechatronics and Robotics (MaR) have recently gained importance in product development and manufacturing settings and applications. Therefore, the Center for Space Emerging Technologies (C-SET) has managed an international multi-disciplinary study to present, historically, the first Latin American general review of industrial, collaborative, and mobile robotics, with the support of North American and European researchers and institutions. The methodology is developed by considering literature extracted from Scopus, Web of Science, and Aerospace Research Central and adding reports written by companies and government organizations. This describes the state-of-the-art of MaR until the year 2023 in the 3 Sub-Regions: North America, Central America, and South America, having achieved important results related to the academy, industry, government, and entrepreneurship; thus, the statistics shown in this manuscript are unique. Also, this article explores the potential for further work and advantages described by robotic companies such as ABB, KUKA, and Mecademic and the use of the Robot Operating System (ROS) in order to promote research, development, and innovation. In addition, the integration with industry 4.0 and digital manufacturing, architecture and construction, aerospace, smart agriculture, artificial intelligence, and computational social science (human-robot interaction) is analyzed to show the promising features of these growing tech areas, considering the improvements to increase production, manufacturing, and education in the Region. Finally, regarding the information presented, Latin America is considered an important location for investments to increase production and product development, taking into account the further proposal for the creation of the LATAM Consortium for Advanced Robotics and Mechatronics, which could support and work on roboethics and education/R+D+I law and regulations in the Region. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2023-07-04-025 Full Text: PD

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson

Measurement of the top quark-pair production cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at \sqrt{s}=7\TeV

A measurement of the production cross-section for top quark pairs(\ttbar) in $pp$ collisions at \sqrt{s}=7 \TeV is presented using data recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events are selected in two different topologies: single lepton (electron $e$ or muon $\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least four jets, and dilepton ($ee$, $\mu\mu$ or $e\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least two jets. In a data sample of 2.9 pb-1, 37 candidate events are observed in the single-lepton topology and 9 events in the dilepton topology. The corresponding expected backgrounds from non-\ttbar Standard Model processes are estimated using data-driven methods and determined to be $12.2 \pm 3.9$ events and $2.5 \pm 0.6$ events, respectively. The kinematic properties of the selected events are consistent with SM \ttbar production. The inclusive top quark pair production cross-section is measured to be \sigmattbar=145 \pm 31 ^{+42}_{-27} pb where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The measurement agrees with perturbative QCD calculations.Comment: 30 pages plus author list (50 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, CERN-PH number and final journal adde

Measurement of the top quark pair cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV using final states with an electron or a muon and a hadronically decaying τ lepton

A measurement of the cross section of top quark pair production in proton-proton collisions recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is reported. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 2.05 fb -1. Events with an isolated electron or muon and a τ lepton decaying hadronically are used. In addition, a large missing transverse momentum and two or more energetic jets are required. At least one of the jets must be identified as originating from a b quark. The measured cross section, σtt-=186±13(stat.)±20(syst.)±7(lumi.) pb, is in good agreement with the Standard Model prediction

Measurement of the production cross section for W-bosons in association with jets in pp collisions at s=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This Letter reports on a first measurement of the inclusive W + jets cross section in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV at the LHC, with the ATLAS detector. Cross sections, in both the electron and muon decay modes of the W-boson, are presented as a function of jet multiplicity and of the transverse momentum of the leading and next-to-leading jets in the event. Measurements are also presented of the ratio of cross sections sigma (W + >= n)/sigma(W + >= n - 1) for inclusive jet multiplicities n = 1-4. The results, based on an integrated luminosity of 1.3 pb(-1), have been corrected for all known detector effects and are quoted in a limited and well-defined range of jet and lepton kinematics. The measured cross sections are compared to particle-level predictions based on perturbative QCD. Next-to-leading order calculations, studied here for n <= 2, are found in good agreement with the data. Leading-order multiparton event generators, normalized to the NNLO total cross section, describe the data well for all measured jet multiplicitie

Expected Performance of the ATLAS Experiment - Detector, Trigger and Physics

A detailed study is presented of the expected performance of the ATLAS detector. The reconstruction of tracks, leptons, photons, missing energy and jets is investigated, together with the performance of b-tagging and the trigger. The physics potential for a variety of interesting physics processes, within the Standard Model and beyond, is examined. The study comprises a series of notes based on simulations of the detector and physics processes, with particular emphasis given to the data expected from the first years of operation of the LHC at CERN

Hunt for new phenomena using large jet multiplicities and missing transverse momentum with ATLAS in 4.7 fb−1 of √s=7 TeV proton-proton collisions

Results are presented of a search for new particles decaying to large numbers of jets in association with missing transverse momentum, using 4.7 fb−1 of pp collision data at s√=7TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in 2011. The event selection requires missing transverse momentum, no isolated electrons or muons, and from ≥6 to ≥9 jets. No evidence is found for physics beyond the Standard Model. The results are interpreted in the context of a MSUGRA/CMSSM supersymmetric model, where, for large universal scalar mass m 0, gluino masses smaller than 840 GeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level, extending previously published limits. Within a simplified model containing only a gluino octet and a neutralino, gluino masses smaller than 870 GeV are similarly excluded for neutralino masses below 100 GeV