Fractionation of palm kernel oil by short path distillation

Fractionation of palm kernel oil (PKO) by short path distillation (SPD) at two feed flow rates (135 g/h and 195 g/h) and six distillation temperatures, TDis (200, 210, 220, 230, 240 and 250 °C) was investigated. Other distillation parameters, such as vacuum pressure (0.001 mbar), blade rotation speed (400 rpm) and temperature of the feed material (60 °C) were kept constant. The fractionated products, known as residue and distillate, were analysed for physico-chemical properties including fatty acid composition (FAC), triacylglycerol (TAG) composition, slip melting point (SMP), thermal analysis by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and solid fat content (SFC). Product yield was measured as well. Crystallisation behaviour of PKO and the fractionated products were studied by measurement of isothermal crystallisation, TCr at 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 °C. The distillates, collected at all fractionation temperatures, were enriched with caprylic, capric and lauric acids. These fractions were also concentrated with low molecular weight and C36 TAGs. Distillates obtained at higher TDis (230-250 °C) exhibited higher in SMP and SFC. On the other hand, the residual oils collected at all fractionation temperatures contained higher amount of long-chain fatty acid and palmitic acid. These fractions were enriched with high molecular weight TAGs. Residues obtained at lower TDis (200-220 °C) were low in SMP and comparable SFC with PKO. Changes in fatty acid and TAG composition resulted in different crystallisation behaviour of the fractions. Distillates collected at all fractionation temperatures crystallised in a sharper peak while residues obtained at higher TDis (230-250 °C) showed broader crystallisation peaks, as shown by the DSC thermograms

Deoiling efficiency for oil extraction from spent bleaching clay and the quality of recovered oil

The disposal and reuse of spent bleaching clay (SBC) from the palm oil processing industry is a problem of growing importance. Although today the only practical way of removing SBC is by disposal, extraction with organic solvents is a well-known method of deoiling contaminated SBC. Various hydrocarbon solvents are used as solvents to extract the residual oil in SBC. In this study, SBC was deoiled by hexane extraction. The content of oil and minor components in SBC was more than 40% by weight. All the extracted oils, irrespective of the solvent used, had poorer quality than crude palm oil (CPO). The outcome of the study showed that the amount of extracted oil using the conventional Soxhlet extraction method was higher than by batch extraction. However, for extraction of the residual SBC using the batch method, a SBC to solvent ratio of 1:7 should be more suitable as more of the impurities are removed. The aim of this study was for a complete separation of the residual oil from SBC. The oil and SBC were analyzed and tested. The results show that SBC still had an activity approximately 80% that of fresh bleaching clay

Isolation, structure elucidation, identification and quantitative analysis of di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) from the roots of Chlorophytum boriviliuanum (safed musli)

Chlorophytum borivilianum (safed musli) is a traditional herbaceous medicinal plant belonging to family Liliaceae. Its roots are being employed in folk medicine. The crude extract of C. borivilianum has been consumed due to its versatile therapeutic uses. The scientific studies related to the important pharmacological properties are widely conducted and the remarkable bioactivities of C. borivilianum are proven in literatures. So far, the isolated chemical compounds are mainly saponins. In this research, the isolation was focused on compounds other than saponins and bis(2-ethylhexyl) benzene-1,2-dicarboxylate was isolated for the first time from the roots of C. borivilianum. The structure was identified based on the spectral data of 1H NMR, 13C NMR, DEPT, COSY, HMBC, HMQC and also based on the comparison with the previous literature data. This is the first report regarding the presence of this compound in C. borivilianum as well as its genus. A high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method with photodiode array detection was established to identify and quantify bis(2-ethylhexyl) benzene-1,2-dicarboxylate

An investigation of the mechanism of advanced oxidation processes (AOP) involving free radicals and charged species.

Hydrogen peroxide is a key component in Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOP). Its decomposition at different pH conditions has been studied and some interesting results were observed. When the pH value of hydrogen peroxide solution is less than 9, its rate of decomposition is independent of pH. On the other hand, in the pH range of 9-12.6, its rate of decomposition increases as pH increases, and goes through a maximum value then suddenly decreases with respect to pH. A reaction kinetic model with three rate constants in the form of beta probability function was used to describe the experimental data of the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide at various pH values. The decomposition of hydrogen peroxide at different pH conditions with UV radiation was also examined. The results showed that the higher the alkalinity, the higher the decomposition rate of hydrogen peroxide. A reaction kinetic model was proposed to describe the experimental data of the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide at various pH values under UV radiation. The decomposition of phenol at different pH conditions in the presence of H2O2/UV was studied not only in order to verify the kinetic model of the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide under UV radiation but also to investigate the mechanism of the decomposition of phenol. The results showed that the higher the alkalinity, the lower the decomposition rate of phenol. These results were in good agreement with those of the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide under UV radiation. A mechanism for the decomposition of phenol at various pH conditions was proposed. The effect of bicarbonate ion, a known scavenger of free radicals, on the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide with and without UV radiation has been investigated. The results showed that bicarbonate ion not only is a free radical scavenger but also causes an incremental increase in hydrogen peroxide decomposition. A reaction kinetic model was proposed to describe the experimental data of the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide at different bicarbonate ion concentrations. The effect of bicarbonate ion on the decomposition of phenol in the presence of H2O2/UV was studied in order to verify all kinetic models proposed in this study

以生物多樣性指標評估集水區崩塌地治理優選順序

The abundance of endemic species in Taiwan is a great natural treasure accomplished by a diverse altitude ranges due to violent tectonic activities and humid tropical weather conditions with ocean surrounded. With the characteristics of few flatlands, the slope lands are inevitable and have been developed for economic and social requirement gradually, which has caused habitation shrinking of animal and plant. Furthermore, Taiwan also suffers disasters such as striking of torrential rains and typhoons during summer season annually, and is vulnerable to landslide because of fragile geology which threats to the living things. Thus, to enhance the efficiency of vegetation recovery in landslide area can benefit the habitats of species. Typhoon Morakot induced landslides and vegetation recovery rate in Kao-Ping watershed can be quickly extracted and/or derived from the satellite images in this study. The biodiversity index established in the database of the watershed can then be applied to assess the treatment priority of landslides. The result shows that the highest landslide rate in Chi-Shan and Lao-Nong watersheds are Xiao-Lin and Ching-Shui Xi sub-watersheds respectively. For vegetation recovery rate, the downstream area is higher than upstream area. For treatment priority, the top 10 of sub-watersheds almost distribute in Lao-Nong watershed. It hopes that the result could provide the related authorities as the references of environmental restoration.台灣雖位處北回歸線，但因造山運動拱起4,000 公尺海拔落差，使台灣物種跨越熱帶、溫帶及寒帶，且四面環海及高溫多雨之島嶼氣候，孕育出許多台灣特有種生物，然台灣因高山多、平地少，在高人口密度下，居民為了生活不得不開發山坡地之原始森林，此舉壓縮了動、植物之生存空間，此外，台灣山高且地質破碎，夏季之暴雨或颱風易造成大規模之崩塌，除對當地居民造成威脅外，亦影響其他物種之生存環境，為此，如何加速崩塌地之植生復育，將有助於恢復各物種之棲地。本研究以莫拉克風災為事件，利用該事件前後期之衛星影像萃取集水區崩塌區位，另計算災後集水區植生復育良窳之熱點區位，最後以生物多樣性指數配合崩塌率及植生復育率評估集水區崩塌地治理之優選順序。研究結果顯示，旗山溪及荖濃溪集水區中崩塌率最高之子集水區分別為小林及清水溪；植生復育率則為下游高於上游區位；整體崩塌地治理優先順序中，得分最高之前10 處主要分布於荖濃溪集水區。期本研究之結果可作為相關生態保育單位於環境復育之參考

Food insecurity and the metabolic syndrome among women from low income communities in Malaysia

This cross-sectional study examined the relationship between household food insecurity and the metabolic syndrome (MetS) among reproductive-aged women (n=625) in low income communities. The Radimer/Cornell Hunger and Food Insecurity instrument was utilized to assess food insecurity. Anthropometry, diet diversity, blood pressure and fasting venous blood for lipid and glucose profile were also obtained. MetS was defined as having at least 3 risk factors and is in accordance with the Harmonized criteria. The prevalence of food insecurity and MetS was 78.4% (household food insecure, 26.7%; individual food insecure, 25.3%; child hunger, 26.4%) and 25.6%, respectively. While more food secure than food insecure women had elevated glucose (food secure, 54.8% vs food insecure, 37.3-46.1%), total cholesterol (food secure, 54.1% vs food insecure, 32.1-40.7%) and LDL-cholesterol (food secure, 63.7% vs food insecure, 40.6-48.7%), the percentage of women with overweight/obesity, abdominal obesity, hypertension, high triglyceride, low HDL-cholesterol and MetS did not vary significantly by food insecurity status. However, after controlling for demographic and socioeconomic covariates, women in food insecure households were less likely to have MetS (individual food insecure and child hunger) (p<0.05), abdominal obesity (individual food insecure and child hunger) (p<0.01), elevated glucose (household food insecure), total cholesterol (child hunger) (p<0.05) and LDL-cholesterol (household food insecure and child hunger) (p<0.05) compared to food secure women. Efforts to improve food insecurity of low income households undergoing nutrition transition should address availability and accessibility to healthy food choices and nutrition education that could reduce the risk of diet-related chronic diseases

Analyzing FreeRTOS Scheduling Behaviors with the Spin Model Checker

FreeRTOS is a real-time operating system with configurable scheduling policies. Its portability and configurability make FreeRTOS one of the most popular real-time operating systems for embedded devices. We formally analyze the FreeRTOS scheduler on ARM Cortex-M4 processor in this work. Specifically, we build a formal model for the FreeRTOS ARM Cortex-M4 port and apply model checking to find errors in our models for FreeRTOS example applications. Intriguingly, several errors are found in our application models under different scheduling policies. In order to confirm our findings, we modify application programs distributed by FreeRTOS and reproduce assertion failures on the STM32F429I-DISC1 board

Full-Length Enrich c-DNA Libraries-Clear Cell-Renal Cell Carcinoma

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), the most common subtype of RCC, is characterized by high metastasis potential and strong resistance to traditional therapies, resulting in a poor five-year survival rate of patients. Several therapies targeted to VEGF pathway for advanced RCC have been developed, however, it still needs to discover new therapeutic targets for treating RCC. Genome-wide gene expression analyses have been broadly used to identify unknown molecular mechanisms of cancer progression. Recently, we applied the oligo-capping method to construct the full-length cDNA libraries of ccRCC and adjacent normal kidney, and analyzed the gene expression profiles by high-throughput sequencing. This paper presents a review for recent findings on therapeutic potential of MYC pathway and nicotinamide N-methyltransferase for the treatment of RCC