This work deals with kinetics and chemical equilibrium studies of esterification reaction of ethanol with acetic acid. The esterification reaction was catalyzed by an acidic ion exchange resin (Amberlyst- 15) using a batch stirred tank reactor. The pseudo-homogenous and Eley-Rideal models were successfully fitted with experimental data. At first, Eley-Rideal model was examined for heterogeneous esterification of acetic acid and ethanol. The pseudo-homogenous model was investigated with a power-law model. The apparent reaction order was determined to be (0.88) for Ethanol and (0.92) for acetic acid with a correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.981 and 0.988, respectively. The reaction order was determined to be 4.1087x10-3 L0.8/(mol0.8.min) with R2 of 0.954. The adsorption constants of acetic acid and ethanol were calculated as 0.023 and 0.044 L/mol, respectively and the lumped reaction constant were determined to be 5*10-4 L2/gcat.mol.min. The results of the reaction kinetic study show that the high acetic acid/ethanol molar ratio was favored. The maximum conversion of 70 % was obtained at 70°C for acetic acid/ethanol molar ratio of 4.
Metal contents in vegetables are interesting because of issues related to food safety and potential health risks. The availability of these metals in the human body may perform many biochemical functions and some of them linked with various diseases at high levels. The current study aimed to evaluate the concentration of various metals in common local consumed vegetables using ICP-MS. The concentrations of metals in vegetables of tarragon, Bay laurel, dill, Syrian mesquite, vine leaves, thymes, arugula, basil, common purslane and parsley of this study were found to be in the range of, 76-778 for Al, 10-333 for B, 4-119 for Ba, 2812-24645 for Ca, 0.1-0.32 for Co, 201-464 for Fe, 3661-46400 for K, 0.31–1.
... Show MoreRetinopathy of prematurity (ROP) can cause blindness in premature neonates. It is diagnosed when new blood vessels form abnormally in the retina. However, people at high risk of ROP might benefit significantly from early detection and treatment. Therefore, early diagnosis of ROP is vital in averting visual impairment. However, due to a lack of medical experience in detecting this condition, many people refuse treatment; this is especially troublesome given the rising cases of ROP. To deal with this problem, we trained three transfer learning models (VGG-19, ResNet-50, and EfficientNetB5) and a convolutional neural network (CNN) to identify the zones of ROP in preterm newborns. The dataset to train th
Many industrial systems involve multiple criteria and objectives, and they are very complex problems in computational science, such as task scheduling. We propose bi-criteria and bi-objective scheduling problems, which are solved by two nature-inspired evolutionary algorithms, such as Simulated Annealing (SA) and Bee Algorithm (BA). This problem is characterized by scheduling a batch of tasks on multiple machines, and it is fundamental because the solution should focus on the simultaneous optimization of two conflicting objectives: the makespan minimization and the total tardiness minimization. This problem is NP-Hard, and therefore, two evolutionary methods were used to search for solutions intelligently in this huge, very complex
... Show MoreThe crude enzyme Nattokinase produced by Bacillus subtilis was used in ripening cheddar cheese by adding three concentration of enzyme 80, 160 and 320mg/Kg beside the control treatment without enzyme, the product was checked for three months to determine humidity, protein, fat, non-protein nitrogen, soluble nitrogen and pH, sensory evaluation was conducted, it was noticed that the variety in protein percentages and the soluble nitrogen percentage during second month of ripening for T2, T3 and T4 treatments were (11.2, 15.54 and 18.48) respectively, in comparison with control which was 7.6%, while in the third month it was (17.37, 20.67 and 22.26) respectively, in comparison with control which was only 10%, on the other hand, non-protein
... Show MoreWastewater recycling for non-potable uses has gained significant attention to mitigate the high pressure on freshwater resources. This requires using a sustainable technique to treat natural municipal wastewater as an alternative to conventional methods, especially in arid and semi-arid rural areas. One of the promising techniques applied to satisfy the objective of wastewater reuse is the constructed wetlands (CWs) which have been used extensively in most countries worldwide through the last decades. The present study introduces a significant review of the definition, classification, and components of CWs, identifying the mechanisms controlling the removal process within such units. Vertical, horizontal, and hybrid CWs
... Show MoreIn the present work, different thicknesses of CdS film were prepared by chemical bath deposition. Z-Scan technique was used to study the nonlinear refractive index and nonlinear absorption coefficients. Linear optical testing were done such as transmission test, and thickness of films were done by the interference fringes (Michelson interferometer). Z-scan experiment was performed at 650nm using CW diode laser and at 532nm wavelength. The results show the effect of self-focusing and defocusing that corresponds with nonlinear refraction n2. The effect of two-photon absorption was also studied, which correspond to the nonlinear absorption coefficient B.
The aim of this study is to evaluate the levels of trace elements Magnesium (Mg), Zinc (Zn), Copper (Cu), and Selenium (Se) in blood sera of asthmatic patients by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (AAS). The concentrations of Mg, Cu, and Zn have been determined by Flame Atomic Absorption spectrophotometry (FAAS), and Se with flameless Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (GFAAS). The study involves (55) asthmatic patients as study group and (28) subjects as control from both genders. Serum levels of Mg, Cu, and Se were significantly higher (p<0.001 for all) in patients when compared with healthy subjects, while Zn level was relatively significant (p<0.05). Our observations confirm the efficacy and applicability of (AAS) in
... Show MoreIn this work, nanostructure zinc sulfide (ZnS) thin films at temperature of substrate 450 oC and thickness (120) nm have been produced by chemical spray pyrolysis method. The X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) measurements of the film showed that they have a polycrystalline structure and possessed a hexagonal phase with strong crystalline orientation of (103). The grain size was measured using scanning electron microscope (SEM) which was approximately equal to 80 nm. The linear optical measurements showed that ZnS nanostructure has direct energy gap. Nonlinear optical properties experiments were performed using Q-switched 532 nm Nd:YAG laser Z-scan system. The nonlinear refractive index (n2) and nonlinear absorption coefficient (β) estimated for Z
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