Experimental analysis of direct thermal methane cracking

The analysis of the viability of Hydrogen production without CO2 emissions is one of the most challenging activities that have been initiated for a sustainable energy supply. As one of the tracks to fulfil such objective, direct methane cracking has been analysed experimentally to assess the scientific viability and reaction characterization in a broad temperature range, from 875 to 1700 ?C. The effect of temperature, sweeping/carrier gas fraction proposed in some concepts, methane flow rate, residence time, and tube material and porosity has been analysed. The aggregation of carbon black particles to the reaction tube is the main technological show-stopper that has been identified

Efficacy of limonene nano coatings on post-harvest shelf life of strawberries

Strawberries are highly demanded fruits because of their color, nutritional values and appearance. The aim of this study was to develop and characterize alginate and limonene liposomes as edible coating materials and to determine their efficacy in shelf life extension and maintaining quality parameters of ‘Chandler’ strawberries. Alginate solution (1.5% w/v) and Limonene liposomes prepared from 80% lecithin and 20% PDA were used as edible coating materials. Fungal decay percentage, total yeast and mold counts, headspace atmosphere analysis, total soluble solids, pH, titratable acidity, total anthocyanin content and total phenolics were analyzed to assess fruit quality during 14 days at 4 °C of storage. Days of storage was found to be significant in maintaining the quality of the strawberries. Among the coating types, limonene liposomes were found to be significantly more effective in maintaining the lower concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2), lower the change in pH (3.9), and had higher total anthocyanin (43.85) content during storage than those without a liposomal coating. Thus, limonene liposomes were found to be useful for extending the shelf life and maintaining quality of strawberry fruits

Episteme, demonstration, and explanation: A fresh look at Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics

It takes work for human beings to know reality and to form and achieve values within it. Understanding this work enables us to take greater control of our minds and our lives. Human beings—many of us, at least—aspire to be objective in our thinking and our decision-making. We aspire to conform our thinking to the facts, rather than allowing our opinions to be determined accidental features of our psychologies and environments. We aspire to achieve things that are genuinely valuable, rather than things that merely seem appealing to some person or group. In our professional lives we aspire to profit by providing our customers (or clients or employers) with goods or services that are genuinely valuable to them. In our civic lives, we seek to preserve or create the sort of government that protects and makes possible all of the activities described above. The Objectivity Program seeks to help us realize these aspirations by illuminating their philosophical foundations, and the ways in which different perspectives on these fundamental issues lead to different approaches to life, business, and governmental policy.A symposium on Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics in Metascience invites the question of how the treatise relates to philosophy of science and epistemology, as these fields are generally understood. It is in the hope of shedding some light on this issue that I propose to discuss Aristotle’s conception of epistēmē, his name for the Posterior Analytics’ subject matter. The term is variously translated “science,” “knowledge,” and “understanding,” but none of these options is ideal, and the difficulty in finding a suitable translation attests to the distance between Aristotle’s thought and our own. Appreciating this somewhat alien concept will help us to better frame some interpretive questions about Aristotle’s project in the Posterior Analytics and some philosophical questions about how his positions relate to the issues of interest to contemporary epistemologists and philosophers of science, and about whether we can find in Aristotle the outlines of a viable theory. (Answering these questions, however, will have to wait for another occasion.)Salem Cente