An alkali catalyzed trans-esterification of rice bran, cottonseed and waste cooking oil

In this research work, biodiesel production by trans-esterification of three raw materials including virgin and used edible oil and non edible oil has been presented. A two step method following acidic and alkali catalyst was used for non edible oil due to the unsuitability of using the straight alkaline-catalyzed trans-esterification of high FFA present in rice bran oil. The acid value after processing for rice bran, cottonseed and waste cooking oil was found to be 0.95, 0.12 and 0.87 respectively. The influence of three variables on percentage yield i.e., methanol to oil molar ratio, reaction temperature and reaction time were studied at this stage. Cottonseed oil, waste cooking oil and rice bran oil showed a maximum yield of 91.7%, 84.1% and 87.1% under optimum conditions. Fuel properties of the three biodiesel satisfied standard biodiesel fuel results

Antibody‐enhanced hepatitis E

BACKGROUND: Circulation of hepatitis E virus (HEV) in areas where plasma is sourced for the manufacture of plasma-derived medicinal products (PDMPs) has prompted verification of HEV clearance. HEV exists as quasi lipid-enveloped (LE) and non–lipid-enveloped (NLE) forms, which might be of relevance for HEV clearance from manufacturing processes of antibody-containing PDMPs with solvent/detergent (S/D) treatment upstream of further clearance steps. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Presence of different HEV particles in stocks used in clearance studies was investigated, with nanofilters graded around the assumed HEV particle sizes and by gradient centrifugation. HEV removal by 35-nm nanofiltration was investigated in the presence or absence of HEV antibodies, in buffer as well as in immunoglobulin (IG) manufacturing process intermediates. RESULTS: HEV particles consistent with LE, NLE, and an “intermediate” (IM) phenotype, obtained after S/D treatment, were seen in different HEV stocks. In the absence of HEV antibodies, log reduction factors (LRFs) of 4.0 and 2.5 were obtained by 35-nm nanofiltration of LE and IM HEV, consistent with the larger and smaller sizes of these phenotypes. Addition of HEV antibodies enhanced IM HEV removal around 1000-fold (LRF, 5.6). Effective (LRF, >4.8 and >4.0) HEV removal was obtained for the nanofiltration processing step for IG intermediates with varying HEV antibody content. CONCLUSION: HEV spikes used in clearance studies should be carefully selected, as differences in physicochemical properties might affect HEV clearance. Antibody-mediated enhancement of HEV nanofiltration was demonstrated in IG process intermediates even at low HEV antibody concentration, illustrating the robustness of this manufacturing step

Template-free synthesis of nitrogen doped carbon materials from an organic ionic dye (murexide) for supercapacitor application

The present study describes a template-free single step carbonization route to prepare hierarchically structured nitrogen-doped carbon materials (NCMs) by using an organic ionic dye (OID), ammonium purpurate (murexide).</p

The relative effectiveness of government and private schools in Pakistan: are girls worse off?

Recent evidence from Pakistan points to significant pro-male bias within households in the allocation of education expenditures. This raises two important questions. Is less spent on enrolled girls than boys through differential school-type choice for the two sexes; for example, through a greater likelihood of sending boys to fee-charging private schools? And, if indeed this is the case, are girls thereby condemned to lower quality schooling, on average, than boys? By asking these questions, this paper makes three contributions to the literature. Firstly, this is one of a very few studies in Pakistan to explore the question of the relative effectiveness of public and private schools despite there being an unpreedeconnted expansion of fee-charging private schools in the past two decades. Secondly, unlike existing papers that focus on primary schooling, this study looks at potential learning gaps by school type for students in their last year of middle school (Grade Eight), very near their transition to secondary schooling. Thirdly, it exploits unique, purposively-collected data from government and private school students, and thus, in estimating achievement production functions, is able to control for a number of variables typically 'unobserved' by researchers. The findings reveal that boys are indeed more likely to be sent to private schools than girls within the household, so that differential school-type choice is an important channel of differential treatment against girls. Private schools are also found to be of better quality - they are more effective than government schools in imparting mathematics and literacy skills. Girls lose out vis-a-vis boys in terms not only of lower within-household educational expenditures, but also in terms of the quality of schooling accessed.privatisation, school choice, gender bias, Pakistan,