Detecting Phase-Inversion Region of Surfactant-Stabilized Oil/Water Emulsions Using Differential Dielectric Sensors

Summary An experimental and theoretical investigation of surfactant-stabilized oil/water emulsion characteristics was carried out under water sweep (WS) and oil sweep (OS) conditions. Both hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfactants were used, with concentrations less than and more than the critical micelle concentration (CMC). Experimental data were acquired for detection of the phase-inversion region, which was measured simultaneously by several independent methods. These include a circular differential dielectric sensor (C-DDS), a rectangular differential dielectric sensor (R-DDS) (both sensors accurately detect the phase-inversion region), a pressure transducer, and a mass flowmeter. The addition of an emulsifier surfactant to an oil/water mixture generated a stable emulsion, which resulted in a phase-inversion delay. For water-continuous to oil-continuous flow, a hydrophilic surfactant was a better emulsifier, while for oil-continuous to water-continuous flow, a hydrophobic surfactant was a better emulsifier for creating more stable emulsions. The surfactant/oil/water emulsion resulted in an increase of the dispersed-phase volume fraction required for phase inversion, as compared to the case of oil/water dispersions without surfactant. For emulsions with surfactant concentrations above CMC, the presence of micelles contributed to further delay of the phase inversion, as compared to those with surfactant concentrations below CMC. The phase-inversion region exhibits a hysteresis between the OS and WS runs, below CMC and above CMC, which was due to the difference in droplet sizes caused by different breakup and coalescence processes for oil-continuous and water-continuousflow. This research shows that the DDS is an efficient instrumentation that can be used to detect the region where the emulsion phase inversion is expected to occur. Moreover, the experimental results and the pertinent analysis and discussion provide useful insights for a more informed design of surface facilities (including emulsion separators) in oil and gas production operations.

Plastome Structure and Phylogenetic Relationships of Styracaceae (Ericales)

Background: The Styracaceae are a woody, dicotyledonous family containing 12 genera and an estimated 160 species. Recent studies have shown that Styrax and Sinojackia are monophyletic, Alniphyllum and Bruinsmia cluster into a clade with an approximately 20-kb inversion in the Large Single-Copy (LSC) region. Halesia and Pterostyrax are not supported as monophyletic, while Melliodendron and Changiostyrax always form sister clades . Perkinsiodendron and Changiostyrax were newly established genera of Styracaceae. However, the phylogenetic relationship of Styracaceae at the genera level needs further research.Results: We collected 28 complete plastomes of Styracaceae, including 12 sequences newly reported here and 16 publicly available complete plastome sequences, comprising 11 of the 12 genera of Styracaceae. All species possessed the typical quadripartite structure of angiosperm plastomes, and the sequence difference is small, except for the large 20-kb (14 genes) inversion region found in Alniphyllum and Bruinsmia. Seven coding sequences (rps4, rpl23, accD, rpoC1, psaA, rpoA and ndhH) were identified to possess positively selected sites. Phylogenetic reconstructions based on seven data sets (i.e., LSC, SSC, IR, Coding, Non-coding, combination of LSC+SSC and concatenation of LSC+SSC+one IR) produced similar topologies. In our analyses, all genera were strongly supported as monophyletic. Styrax was sister to the remaining genera. Alniphyllum and Bruinsmia form a clade. Halesia diptera does not cluster with Perkinsiodendron, while Perkinsiodendron and Rehderodendron form a clade. Changiostyrax is sister to a clade of Pterostyrax and Sinojackia,Conclusion: Our results clearly indicate that Pterostyrax is monophyletic, and the establishment of Perkinsiodendron and Changiostyrax are supported. A 20-kb reverse sequence was also found in the newly published sequence of Alniphyllum fortunei, which confirmed the existence of large inversion sequence in Alniphyllum and Bruinsmia.

Plastome Structure and Phylogenetic Relationships of Styracaceae (Ericales)

Background: The Styracaceae are a woody, dicotyledonous family containing 12 genera and an estimated 160 species. Recent studies have shown that Styrax is monophyletic, Alniphyllum and Bruinsmia cluster into a clade with an approximately 20-kb inversion in the LSC. Halesia and Pterostyrax are not supported as monophyletic, while Melliodendron and Changiostyrax always from a clade sister to the rest of the family. However, the phylogenetic relationship of Styracaceae at the level of genera remains ambiguous. Results: We collected 28 complete plastomes of Styracaceae, including 12 sequences newly reported here and 16 publicly available complete plastome sequences, comprising 11 of the 12 genera of Styracaceae. All species possessed the typical quadripartite structure of angiosperm plastomes, and the sequence difference is small, except for the large 20-kb (14 genes) inversion region found in Alniphyllum and Bruinsmia . Seven coding sequences ( rps4 , rpl23 , accD , rpoC1 , psaA , rpoA and ndhH ) were identified to possess positively selected sites. Phylogenetic reconstructions based on seven data sets (i.e., LSC, SSC, IR, Coding, Non-coding, combination of LSC+SSC and concatenation of LSC+SSC+one IR) produced similar topologies and most relationships are consistent with previous findings. In our study, Pterostyrax was strongly supported as monophyletic; Melliodendron and Changiostyrax as successively sister to the rest of the family. Conclusion: Our results clearly indicate that Pterostyrax is monophyletic, and the establishment of Perkinsiodendron and Changiostyrax are supported. A 20-kb reverse sequence was found in the newly published sequence of Alniphyllum fortunei , which confirmed the existence of large inversion sequence in Alniphyllum and Bruinsmia .

Structural variants in Mongolian originated ruminant: role in adaptation of extreme-environment

Background: Mongolian cattle (MC) is one of an ancient livestock breeds with good economic traits such as adaptation to Mongolian Plateau extreme low temperature in winter, resistant to pathogenic organisms infection and high quality meat. To reveal the molecular mechanism underlying these, the whole genome sequencing and comparative transcriptome sequencing of MC were performed.Results：By genome sequencing and structure variation analysis, 8 genes related to pathogenic organisms infection, including 4 members of bata-defensins gene family (LAP, DEFB1, DEFB2, and DEFB5), 2 members of interferon (IFN) gene family (IFNW1 and IFNT2) and 2 genes coding for BoLA proteins(Mongolian_cattle_21532 and Mongolian_cattle_19448) were found in MC genome inversion region. By transcriptome-sequencing, it was elucidated that 8 genes (FATP, FABP, PEPCK, SCP-X, ADIPO, FABP1, SCD-1, APO) related to PPARα pathway, 23 genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation and 10 P450 genes (CYP7B1, CYP4V2, CYP3A5, CYP11A1, CYP2C18, CYP2B6, CYP7A1, CYP2R1, CYP2E1, CYP27B1) were significantly up-regulated in winter MC transcriptomes, comparative to summer MC transcriptomes.Conclusions: Here, we characterized 41 genes implicated in fatty acid metabolism were up-regulated in winter MC transcriptomes. These genes probably account for the MC adaptation to extreme low temperature. At the same time, 8 genes in MC genome inversion region were discovered. And these genes gave clue to the MC resistant to pathogenic organisms infection. In sum, our revealed genes are of important for us to understand the molecular mechanisms of MC to adapt to their environments and valuable for cattle breeding.

A 167.18 ppm/°C temperature coefficient, area efficient voltage reference using only MOS transistors

In this paper, design of a voltage reference circuit using only MOS transistors and without employing an operational amplifier is presented. A proportional to absolute temperature [PTAT] voltage and a PTAT current are designed then difference of the PTAT voltage and product of the PTAT current and resistor gives the temperature independent voltage. The advantages of both sub-threshold and strong inversion region operation of MOS transistors are exploited in the design. The voltage reference is implemented using standard CMOS 180 nm technology. The voltage reference provides a voltage of 224.3 mV consuming a quiescent current of 30 ?A at room temperature. Post layout simulation results show that the proposed voltage reference has a temperature coefficient of 167.18 ppm/?C and varies only 3mV when there is a ?10% variation in supply voltage. The circuit occupies an area of only 93.6?32.6?m on the chip, making it suitable for area constraint applications.

Design and Performance Analysis of Hybrid SELBOX Junctionless FinFET

In this work, the performance of selective buried oxide junction-less (SELBOX-JL) transistor at a FinFET structure is analysed using numerical simulations. The proposed structure exhibits better thermal resistance (RTH), which is the measure of the self-heating effect (SHE). The DC and analog performances of the proposed structure were studied and compared with the conventional and hybrid (or inverted-T) JLFinFETs (JLTs). The ION of the hybrid SELBOX- JLFinFET is 1.43x times better than the ION of the JLT due to the added advantage of different technologies, such as 2D-ultra-thin-body (UTB), 3D-FinFET, and SELBOX. The proposed device is modeled using sprocess and simulation study is carried using sdevice. Various analog parameters, such as transconductance (gm), transconductance generation factor (TGF = gm/IDS), unity current gain frequency (fT), early voltage (VEA), total gate capacitance (Cgg), and intrinsic gain (A0), are evaluated. The proposed device with a minimum feature size of 10nm exhibited better TGF, fT, VEA, and A0 in the deep-inversion region of operation.