Facile Utilization of Carbon Dioxide for the Esterification of Potassium Lactate to Butyl Lactate

Ali Awad,Macchindra Gulabrao Chandgude,Young Kyu Hwang 한국환경에너지공학회 2023 한국열환경공학회 학술대회지 Vol.2023 No.2

The utilization of C아 is crucial for the sustainable growth of human society. Herein, we demonstrate the direct esterification of potassium lactate (KL) ,vith butanol and pressurized CO₂ to butyl lactate (BL). The pressurized C아 reacts with water to form carbonic acid, which promotes esterification. In a single batch reaction, 17% butyl lactate was obtained which was increased to 36% through two consecutive esterification cycles. Finally, the complete conversion of potassium lactate to butyl lactate was achieved using a very small amount of sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄). The proposed integrated process requires approximately 63% less mineral acid compared to the conventional lactate separation and purification processes. The effect of reaction parameters, mcluding reaction temperature, reaction time, CO₂ pressure and moisture content for the esterification of potassium lactate were explored.

Association of Plasma Ghrelin Levels with Insulin Resistance in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus among Saudi Subjects

Ali Ahmed Al Qarni,Faris Elbahi Joatar,Nagalla Das,Mohamed Awad,Mona Eltayeb,Ahmed Gasim Al-Zubair,Muhalab E. Ali,Abdulaziz Al Masaud,Abdirashid M. Shire,Khalid Gumaa,Hayder A. Giha 대한내분비학회 2017 Endocrinology and metabolism Vol.32 No.2

Background: Although the exact mechanism of insulin resistance (IR) has not yet been established, IR is the hallmark characteristic of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between plasma ghrelin levels and IR in Saudi subjects with T2DM. Methods: Patients with T2DM (n=107, cases) and non-diabetic apparently healthy subjects (n=101, controls) from Saudi Arabia were included in this study. The biochemical profiles and plasma insulin levels of all subjects were analyzed, and IR was estimated using the homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) index. Active ghrelin levels in plasma were measured using the radioimmunoassay technique. Results: Only 46.7% (50 of 107) of the T2DM subjects had IR, including 26% (28 of 107) with severe IR (HOMA-IR ≥5), while 5.9% (six of 101) of the controls had moderate IR (3≤ HOMA-IR <5). HOMA-IR values were not associated with age, disease duration, or gender. Importantly, T2DM itself and the co-occurrence of IR with T2DM were significantly associated with low plasma ghrelin levels. However, ghrelin levels were inversely correlated with the HOMA-IR index, body weight, and fasting plasma insulin levels, mainly in the control subjects, which was indicative of the breakdown of metabolic homeostasis in T2DM. Conclusion: The prevalence of IR was relatively low, and IR may be inversely associated with plasma ghrelin levels among Saudi patients with T2DM.

Scalable Scenario Specifications to Synthesize Component-centric Behaviour Models

Awad Ali,Dayang N. A. Jawawi,Mohd Adham Isa 보안공학연구지원센터 2015 International Journal of Software Engineering and Vol.9 No.9

Several scenario description languages and associated behaviour synthesis processes have been developed. The goal of these is to synthesize behaviour models from system requirement specifications, in order to enable the early identification of weak design spots or code generation. To date, however, most of the scenario languages are poorly scaled with regards to system sizes. This is because scalability requires more expressive constructs that can help when writing a scenario specification in a concise and compact manner, thereby resulting in a reduced number of scenarios. Furthermore, due to a lack of expressiveness in scenario languages, synthesis algorithms may need to rely on global behaviour models to determine inter-scenario dependencies. The global model is an additional factor that limits the approaches’ scalability. The reason is that the construction of a global model becomes harder as the system specification increases. To tackle these issues, within this article is proposed an expressive scenario description language that provides a concise and compact approach to scenario description, and defines inter-scenario dependencies semantically. A new algorithm that can address the additional constructs of the language was defined, in order to synthesize component-centric behaviour models. The applicability of this work has been demonstrated through both an illustrative example and a real-world case study. The evaluation indicates that the proposed scenario description language is more scalable than existing languages.

Zinc(II) modified carbon paste electrodes based on self-assembled mercapto compounds-gold-nanoparticles for its determination in water samples

Tamer Awad Ali,E.M.S. Azzam,M.A. Hegazy,A.F.M. El-Farargy,Ali A. Abd-Elaal 한국공업화학회 2014 Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Vol.20 No.5

In the present study newly developed potentiometric sensors for determination of zinc(II) are presented. The proposed potentiometric method was based on the fabrication of modified carbon paste (MCPE; electrode X) and modified gold nanoparticles-carbon paste (GNPs-CPE; electrode IX) sensors. A mercapto compound of 1,4-bis(5-mercaptopentyloxy)-benzene (BMPB) alone or self-assembled on gold nanoparticles was used as modifier to construct electrode (X) and electrode (IX) sensors, respectively. The prepared electrodes exhibit Nernstian slope of 29.93 ± 0.4 and 26.0 ± 1.02 mV decade-1 towards Zn(II) ion over a wide concentration range of 6.8 × 10-10 to 2.9 × 10-2 and 1.0 × 10-7 to 1.0 × 10-2 mol L-1 for electrode (IX) and electrode (X) sensors, respectively. The limit of detection of the electrode (IX) and electrode (X) sensors was found to be 6.8 × 10-10 and 1.0 × 10-7 mol L-1, respectively. The potentiometric response of the electrode (IX) and electrode (X) based on GNPs-BMPB and BMPB are independent of pH of test solution in the pH range of 2.5–8.1 and 3–7 with a response time of 6 and 8 s for electrode (IX) and electrode (X) sensors, respectively. The proposed sensors showed fairly good discriminating ability towards Zn(II) ion in comparison with many hard and soft metal ions. Finally, the proposed electrodes were successfully used as indicator electrodes in potentiometric titration of zinc ion with sodium tetraphenylborate (NaTPB) and in direct determination of Zn(II) ion in some water samples. The results obtained compared well with those obtained using atomic absorption spectrometry.

Construction and performance characteristics of chemically modified carbon paste electrodes for the selective determination of Co(II) ions in water samples

Tamer Awad Ali,Gehad G. Mohamed,M.M. Omar,Noha M. Hanafy 한국공업화학회 2017 Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Vol.47 No.-

The construction, performance characteristics and application of Co(II)-chemically modified carbon paste electrodes (CMCPEs) based on bis(salicylaldehyde)-o-phenylenediamine (Schiff base I, SalophH2; ionophore A), N-salicylidene-o-aminophenol (Schiff base II, SaphH2, ionophore B), [Co(Saloph)] complex (ionophore C) and [Co(Saph)OH2] complex (ionophore D) are reported in this paper. The CMCPEs are prepared by incorporating of A–D ionophores into a plasticized carbon paste electrodes to form electrodes I–IV sensors, respectively. The prepared electrodes exhibit Nernstian slope of 29.20 ± 1.13, 28.20 ± 2.07, 29.90 ± 0.26 and 28.80 ± 1.04 mV decade−1 towards Co(II) ion over a wide concentration range of 1.0 × 10−7–1.0 × 10−2, 7.9 × 10−7–1.0 × 10−2, 4.9 × 10−8–1.0 × 10−2 and 5.1 × 10−7–1.0 × 10−2 mol L−1 with a detection limit of 1.0 × 10−7, 7.9 × 10−7, 4.9 × 10−8 and 5.1 × 10−7 mol L−1 at pH range 3.0–8.0, 3.5–7, 2.0–8.0 and 2.5–7.5 for electrodes I–IV, respectively. The electrodes showed good selectivity for Co(II) ion toward a wide variety of metal ions. The proposed electrodes were successfully applied for the determination of Co(II) ion in real spiked water samples and the results obtained compared well with those obtained using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AAS).

Potentiometric determination of iron in polluted water samples using new modified Fe(III)-screen printed ion selective electrode

Tamer Awad Ali,Ahmed A. Farag,Gehad G. Mohamed 한국공업화학회 2014 Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Vol.20 No.4

This article is focused on the determination of Fe(III) ion as an important factor in water pollution. A potentiometric method based on screen-printed ion-selective electrode was described for the determination of Fe(III) ion in different polluted water samples. It is based on incorporation of the Fe-phosphotungstate ion-associate in a screen-printed electrode (SPE) composition and tricresylpho-sphate (TCP) as plasticizer. The influences of the paste composition, different conditioning parameters and foreign ions on the electrode performance were investigated. The reversibility and also response time of the electrode have been studied. The electrode showed Nernstian response of 19.20 ± 0.73 mV decade-1 in the concentration range of 1 × 10-7–2.5 × 10-2 mol L-1. The electrode was found to be usable within the pH range of 3–7.5 and exhibited a fast response time (about 7 s), low detection limit (1.57 × 10-7 mol L-1), long lifetime (>6 months) and good stability. The isothermal temperature coefficient (dE0/dt) of the electrode was calculated. The electrode was successfully applied for the determination of Fe(III) ion in pure solutions and polluted water samples (formation, tab and sea water samples) using potentiometric determination technique. The results obtained applying this potentiometric electrode is comparable with those obtained using inductive coupled plasma technique.

Prevalence, Laboratory Findings and Clinical Characteristics of Campylobacteriosis Agents among Hospitalized Children with Acute Gastroenteritis in Lebanon

Ghssein, Ghassan,Awada, Rana,Salami, Ali,Bahmad, Hisham F.,Awad, Ali,Joumaa, Wissam H.,Roz, Ali El The Korean Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology 2021 Pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology & nutrition Vol.24 No.4

Purpose: Campylobacter species are currently the most common cause of bacterial gastroenteritis. In Lebanon, Campylobacter infection occurrence is underdiagnosed owing to the lack of specific culture and rapid test kits, particularly among children. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence, laboratory findings, and clinical characteristics of Campylobacter infection in hospitalized children with acute gastroenteritis in South Lebanon. Methods: We conducted a 6-month retrospective cohort study between January and June 2018, including 291 children aged between 1 month and 12 years, who were admitted to a tertiary healthcare center in South Lebanon. The medical files of the patients were reviewed to retrieve the required clinical information, including clinical and laboratory data. Results: The prevalence of campylobacteriosis agents in pediatric patients with acute gastroenteritis is 12.02%. Patients infected with Campylobacter had more severe acute gastroenteritis than Campylobacter-negative patients and often presented with high-grade fever, diarrhea episodes more than six times per day, diarrhea lasting for more than five days, and dehydration. Indeed, children with high-grade fever (≥38.5℃) were five times more likely to test positive for Campylobacter than those with low-grade fever. In addition, the results showed a higher Vesikari score for the majority of Campylobacter-positive patients with severe acute gastroenteritis compared to a moderate profile for Campylobacter-negative patients. Conclusion: The present study findings highlight that Campylobacter infection is frequent among children with acute gastroenteritis. Therefore, the detection of Campylobacter should be carried out for the diagnosis of human gastroenteritis in Lebanon, along with the detection of routine enteropathogens.

An improved differential evolution algorithm using efficient adapted surrogate model for numerical optimization

Awad, Noor H.,Ali, Mostafa Z.,Mallipeddi, Rammohan,Suganthan, Ponnuthurai N. Elsevier science 2018 Information Sciences Vol. No.

<P>Contemporary real-world optimization benchmarks are subject to many constraints and are often high-dimensional problems. Typically, such problems are expensive in terms of computational time and cost. Conventional constraint-based solvers that are used to tackle such problems require a considerable high budget of function evaluations. Such budget is not affordable in practice. In most cases, this number is considered the termination criterion in which the optimization process is stopped and then the best solution is marked. The algorithm might not converge even after consuming the pre-defined number of function evaluations, and hence it does not guarantee an optimal solution is found. Motivated by this consideration, this paper introduces an effective surrogate model to assist the differential evolution algorithm to generate competitive solutions during the search process. The proposed surrogate model uses a new adaptation scheme to adapt the theta parameter in the well-known Kriging model. This variable determines the correlation between the parameters of the optimization problem being solved. For that reason, an accurate surrogate model is crucial to have a noticeable enhancement during the search. The statistical information exploited from a covariance matrix is used to build the correlation matrix to adapt the theta variable instead of using a fixed value during the search. Hence, the surrogate model evolves over the generations to better model the basin of the search, as the population evolves. The model is implemented in the popular L-SHADE algorithm. Two benchmark sets: bound-constrained problems and real-world optimization problems are used to validate the performance of the proposed algorithm, namely iDEaSm. Also, two engineering design problems are solved: welded beam and pressure vessel. The performance of the proposed work is compared with other state-of-the-art algorithms and the simulation results indicate that the new technique can improve the performance to generate better statistical significance solutions. (C) 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.</P>

A New Septum in the Female Breast

Awad, Mostafa Abdel Rahman,Sherif, Mahmoud Magdi,Sadek, Eaman Yahya,Helal, Hesham Aly,Hamid, Wafaa Raafat Abdel Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surge 2017 Archives of Plastic Surgery Vol.44 No.2

Background Understanding the female breast fascial system is of paramount importance in breast surgery. Little was written about breast ligaments. Most articles refer to Cooper's work without further anatomical studies. Lately, a horizontal septum has been described conveying nerves and vessels to the nipple areola complex. Methods During the surgical dissection of the lower part of the breast, in supero-medial technique for breast reduction operations, a fascial septum between the lower two quadrants was detected. This fibrous septum was studied through anatomic dissection of breast tissues during routine breast reshaping procedures that was done on 30 female patients. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed preoperatively in all cases and correlated with the intraoperative findings. In the other five cases, outside the clinical study, the imaging was done during routine investigation for breast swellings. Results A vertical septum was identified in the lower part of the breast, lying at the breast meridian between the two lower quadrants. It is a tough bi-laminated structure that extends from the middle of the infra-mammary crease caudally to nipple-areola complex cranially and from the pectoral fascia posteriorly to the overlying skin anteriorly. This was proved by MRI findings. Conclusions This study describes a new inferior vertical septum which separates the lower half of the breast into two definite anatomical compartments: medial and lateral.

RESEARCH ARTICLES : Genetic Behavior of Families Selected from Some Local Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench) Populations in Egypt

( Ehab Awad-allah Ibrahim ),( Mohamed Youssif Abed ),( Ali Mohamed Moghazy ) 한국육종학회 2013 Plant Breeding and Biotechnology Vol.1 No.4

The objectives of the study were to investigate the genetic behavior of some biological and economical traits of 14 okra populations collected from Dakahlia Governorate, which underwent two cycles of inbreeding with selection. Selection of individual plants based on earliness, high number of pods, and minimum neck/pod ratio was carried out in all generations. The results showed that the means and ranges of all studied traits for all families became smaller in the S2 generation than those in the S0 generation. Highly significant variations were observed among populations for all the studied traits. The mean performance clearly indicated the agronomic superiority of some families over the others. Family 9 followed by family 12 showed the earliest flowering plants and the highest yield per plant. Phenotypic variances were higher than the corresponding genotypic variances indicating predominance of environmental effects on the expression of these characters. The magnitude of phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variation varied from one trait to another. High broad-sense heritability coupled with high genetic advance as percent of mean were shown by the different traits, especially, plant height, number of branches per plant, number of pods per plant, pod length, neck/pod ratio and plant yield. This implicates that these traits were under the control of additive genetic effects, and could be effectively improved through selection. Plant yield had positive and highly significant correlation at genotypic and phenotypic level with number of pods per plant,plant height and neck/pod ratio.