In this study, nanoporous silica aerogel and silica aerogel-activated carbon composites have been synthesized using a water glass precursor by cost effective ambient pressure drying method. Equilibrium and kinetics of benzene and ethyl benzene adsorption on silica aerogel and its composites have been measured in a batch mode at tree weights of adsorbent. For the first time, the experimental dat...

In this work, hydrophobic silica aerogels were synthesized using sol-gel method and drying at ambient pressure. The surface morphology, pore size, and the presence of functional groups on the surface of the nanoparticles were analyzed using FE-SEM, TGA, FT-IR, and EDX, respectively. After calcination at 500 °C, the hydrophilic property of the adsorbents was evaluated by water contact angle meas...

Freeze-dried spermatozoa are capable of participating in normal embryonic development after injection into oocytes and thus useful for the maintenance of genetic materials. We recently reported that long-term preservation of freeze-dried mouse spermatozoa by conventional methods requires temperatures lower than -80 degrees C. Successful permanent preservation of mouse spermatozoa at much higher...

The effect of hydrostatic pressure on the incommensurate antiferromagnetic structure of CeRhIn5 is investigated with neutron diffraction using a He pressure cell. At 3.8 kbar, the staggered magnetic moment is 0.37(4) μB per Ce at 1.6 K, which is the same as the ambient-pressure value. The Néel temperature TN = 3.8(1) K is also the same as the ambient-pressure one, although the curve of order pa...

Freeze-drying is a process which retains the nutritional, sensorial and functional qualities of foods, together with extreme reduction in weight, high solubility, long shelflife at moderate temperature and the possibility to perform rehydration at any desired level. The application of this technique in the development of a Freeze dried mango milk shake powder using Badami mango (Mangifera indic...

Studies on methods for fixing foods (with a slight loss of bioactive compounds) and obtaining attractive products are important with respect to current technology. The drying process allows for a product with highly bioactive properties. Drying of Physalis fruit was carried out in a conventional manner, and in a microwave under reduced pressure at 120 W and 480 W. After drying, the fruits were ...

A coupled drying model for wood is proposed by introducing a dynamic capillary pressure. The pressures of non-wetting phase, the wetting phase, and the capillary pressure at equilibrium has been considered as non-static; this approach includes a two-scale model. According to numerical results, liquid, water vapor and air dynamics in the chamber have strong interactions with re-homogenization in...

We report here the development of a freeze-drying procedure allowing stabilization at ambient temperature of preoptimized, premixed, and predispensed PCR mixes aimed at the detection of mycobacteria in clinical materials. The freeze-dried mixes retained activity at 4 degrees C and at 20 degrees C for 1 year and for 3 months at 37 degrees C, as judged by their performance with 50 and 500 fg of p...

PURPOSE The response of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) to ocular pressure in glaucoma likely involves signals from astrocytes and microglia. How glia-derived factors influence RGC survival at ambient and elevated pressure and whether the inflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a contributing factor were investigated. METHODS Primary cultures of retinal astrocytes, microglia, and RGCs wer...