4,425 research outputs found
Ultrasound-induced emulsification of subcritical carbon dioxide/water with and without surfactant as a strategy for enhanced mass transport
Pulsed ultrasound was used to disperse a biphasic mixture of CO2/H2O in a 1 dm3 high-pressure reactor at 30 °C/80 bar. A view cell positioned in-line with the sonic vessel allowed observation of a turbid emulsion which lasted approximately 30 min after ceasing sonication. Within the ultrasound reactor, simultaneous CO2-continuous and H2O-continuous environments were identified. The hydrolysis of benzoyl chloride was employed to show that at similar power intensities, comparable initial rates (1.6 ± 0.3 × 10–3 s–1 at 95 W cm–2) were obtained with those reported for a 87 cm3 reactor (1.8 ± 0.2 × 10–3 s–1 at 105 W cm–2), demonstrating the conservation of the physical effects of ultrasound in high-pressure systems (emulsification induced by the action of acoustic forces near an interface). A comparison of benzoyl chloride hydrolysis rates and benzaldehyde mass transport relative to the non-sonicated, ‘silent’ cases confirmed that the application of ultrasound achieved reaction rates which were over 200 times faster, by reducing the mass transport resistance between CO2 and H2O. The versatility of the system was further demonstrated by ultrasound-induced hydrolysis in the presence of the polysorbate surfactant, Tween, which formed a more uniform CO2/H2O emulsion that significantly increased benzoyl chloride hydrolysis rates. Finally, pulse rate was employed as a means of slowing down the rate of hydrolysis, further illustrating how ultrasound can be used as a valuable tool for controlling reactions in CO2/H2O solvent mixtures
Entangled symmetric states of N qubits with all positive partial transpositions
From both theoretical and experimental points of view symmetric states
constitute an important class of multipartite states. Still, entanglement
properties of these states, in particular those with positive partial
transposition (PPT), lack a systematic study. Aiming at filling in this gap, we
have recently affirmatively answered the open question of existence of
four-qubit entangled symmetric states with positive partial transposition and
thoroughly characterized entanglement properties of such states [J. Tura et
al., Phys. Rev. A 85, 060302(R) (2012)] With the present contribution we
continue on characterizing PPT entangled symmetric states. On the one hand, we
present all the results of our previous work in a detailed way. On the other
hand, we generalize them to systems consisting of arbitrary number of qubits.
In particular, we provide criteria for separability of such states formulated
in terms of their ranks. Interestingly, for most of the cases, the symmetric
states are either separable or typically separable. Then, edge states in these
systems are studied, showing in particular that to characterize generic PPT
entangled states with four and five qubits, it is enough to study only those
that assume few (respectively, two and three) specific configurations of ranks.
Finally, we numerically search for extremal PPT entangled states in such
systems consisting of up to 23 qubits. One can clearly notice regularity behind
the ranks of such extremal states, and, in particular, for systems composed of
odd number of qubits we find a single configuration of ranks for which there
are extremal states.Comment: 16 pages, typos corrected, some other improvements, extension of
arXiv:1203.371
Four-qubit entangled symmetric states with positive partial transpositions
We solve the open question of the existence of four-qubit entangled symmetric
states with positive partial transpositions (PPT states). We reach this goal
with two different approaches. First, we propose a
half-analytical-half-numerical method that allows to construct multipartite PPT
entangled symmetric states (PPTESS) from the qubit-qudit PPT entangled states.
Second, we adapt the algorithm allowing to search for extremal elements in the
convex set of bipartite PPT states [J. M. Leinaas, J. Myrheim, and E. Ovrum,
Phys. Rev. A 76, 034304 (2007)] to the multipartite scenario. With its aid we
search for extremal four-qubit PPTESS and show that generically they have ranks
(5,7,8). Finally, we provide an exhaustive characterization of these states
with respect to their separability properties.Comment: 5+4 pages, improved version, title slightly modifie
Uso de atmosfera controlada para conservação pós-colheita do mamão "Golden".
Frutos de mamoeiro 'Golden' colhidos no estádio 3 de maturação foram armazenados sob controle de atmosfera (3%O2 e 3%CO2 , 3%O2 e 6%CO2 ou 8%CO2 , 5%O2 e 8%CO2) e sob atmosfera ambiente (70% ou 90% U.R.), por 20 ou 25 dias, seguidos de mais 5 dias em atmosfera ambiente, a 10º C. Após 4 dias a 22º C não se verificaram muitas diferenças entre tratamentos, porém o maior teor de sólidos solúveis em frutos armazenados sob 3%O2/3%CO2, e os maiores Ãndices de maturidade nos frutos armazenados sob 3%O2/6%CO2, por 20 dias, sugerem que novos estudos possam ser realizados adotando-se tais concentrações
Ultrasound-induced CO<sub>2</sub> /H<sub>2</sub>O emulsions as a medium for clean product formation and separation : the Barbier reaction as a synthetic example
: Subcritical CO2/H2O (30 °C/80 bar) was
employed as a renewable solvent mixture in a 1 dm3
ultrasound reactor. As a representative synthetic transformation,
the metal-mediated Barbier allylation was used to
demonstrate the facility of formation and separation of the
homoallylic alcohol product. The chemoselectivity over the
competing aldehyde reduction could be improved by
deploying the biocompatible nonionic surfactant Tween 80,
a saturated salt aqueous phase, or by carrying out the reaction
at 60 °C/120 bar. All of these modifications led to an apparent
rate increase in the desired allylation. A range of substituted benzaldehydes afforded the corresponding homoallylic alcohols in
moderate to high yields. The presence of water constituted a necessary condition for efficient product formation, while CO2
provided an appropriate phase for clean product separation by exploiting a favorable homoallylic alcohol enrichment. In this way,
0.025 mol of homoallylic alcohol product could be isolated from the CO2 phase in 1 h, avoiding further extraction stages that
would typically require organic solvents
An in vitro system for the comparison of excision and wet-dry swabbing for microbiological sampling of beef carcasses.
An in vitro system for the comparison of wet-dry swabbing and surface tissue excision was developed to ascertain whether the commonly accepted statement of the advantage (in terms of bacterial recovery) of the tissue excision method is also legitimate when different kinds of bacteria are used. A total of 1,770 sections (2.5 by 10 cm) of bovine skin were individually inoculated on the subcutaneous fat side by spreading various suspensions of marker organisms (nalidixic acid-resistant Escherichia coli, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) at different concentrations and sampled by two standard methods: cotton wet-dry swabbing and excision. Most counts from cuts sampled by excision were significantly (P < 0.05) higher than the wet-dry swabs; however, no differences were observed between the control and the sampling method when sections were inoculated with bacterial solutions at a concentration of 10(3) CFU/ml and sampled by excision. For sections inoculated with bacterial solutions at a concentration of 10(3) CFU/ml, counts given as log CFU/25 cm2 ranged from 1.97 (S. aureus sampled by wet-dry swab) to 3.06 (S. aureus sampled by excision). For sections inoculated at a concentration of 10(4), counts given as log CFU/25 cm(2) ranged from 2.15 (E. faecalis sampled by wet-dry swab) to 3.19 (S. aureus sampled by excision). For sections inoculated at 10(5), counts given as log CFU/25 cm(2) ranged from 2.94 (E. faecalis, wet-dry swab) to 3.98 (S. aureus, excision), and for sections inoculated at 106, counts given as log CFU/25 cm(2) ranged from 3.53 (E. coli, wet-dry swab) to 4.69 (S. aureus, excision). The proposed system, which enabled a considerable amount of samples to be analyzed under controlled experimental conditions and a large number of data to be generated in a short time, demonstrated among the tested microorganisms that whereas the excision method recovered the highest number of bacteria, control means were always (with the exception of an inoculum of 10(3)/ml) significantly higher than means from either of the sampling methods. Our results indicate that particular attention should be paid to the diverse microflora that can contaminate carcasses in a given slaughterhouse and that it is not appropriate to generalize by saying that the destructive method is the reference technique for the bacteriological sampling of carcasses in slaughterhouses, especially when the contamination is higher than 10(3) CFU/25 cm(2)
Disease-relevant proteostasis regulation of cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator
Mismanaged protein trafficking by the proteostasis network contributes to several conformational diseases, including cystic fibrosis, the most frequent lethal inherited disease in Caucasians. Proteostasis regulators, as cystamine, enable the beneficial action of cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) potentiators in \u394F508-CFTR airways beyond drug washout. Here we tested the hypothesis that functional CFTR protein can sustain its own plasma membrane (PM) stability. Depletion or inhibition of wild-type CFTR present in bronchial epithelial cells reduced the availability of the small GTPase Rab5 by causing Rab5 sequestration within the detergent-insoluble protein fraction together with its accumulation in aggresomes. CFTR depletion decreased the recruitment of the Rab5 effector early endosome antigen 1 to endosomes, thus reducing the local generation of phosphatidylinositol-3-phosphate. This diverts recycling of surface proteins, including transferrin receptor and CFTR itself. Inhibiting CFTR function also resulted in its ubiquitination and interaction with SQSTM1/p62 at the PM, favoring its disposal. Addition of cystamine prevented the recycling defect of CFTR by enhancing BECN1 expression and reducing SQSTM1 accumulation. Our results unravel an unexpected link between CFTR protein and function, the latter regulating the levels of CFTR surface expression in a positive feed-forward loop, and highlight CFTR as a pivot of proteostasis in bronchial epithelial cells
Coherent Pair Production by Photons in the 20-170 GeV Energy Range Incident on Crystals and Birefringence
The cross section for coherent pair production by linearly polarised photons
in the 20-170 GeV energy range was measured for photon aligned incidence on
ultra-high quality diamond and germanium crystals. The theoretical description
of coherent bremsstrahlung and coherent pair production phenomena is an area of
active theoretical debate and development. However, under our experimental
conditions, the theory predicted the combined cross section and polarisation
experimental observables very well indeed. In macroscopic terms, our experiment
measured a birefringence effect in pair production in a crystal. This study of
this effect also constituted a measurement of the energy dependent linear
polarisation of photons produced by coherent bremsstrahlung in aligned
crystals. New technologies for manipulating high energy photon beams can be
realised based on an improved understanding of QED phenomena at these energies.
In particular, this experiment demonstrates an efficient new polarimetry
technique. The pair production measurements were done using two independent
methods simultaneously. The more complex method using a magnet spectrometer
showed that the simpler method using a multiplicity detector was also viable.Comment: 10 pages, 13 figures, 1 table, REVTeX4 two column, Version for
publicatio
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