Regenerative oxidation is an economic and effective means of controlling volatile organic compounds (VOCs) with concentrations exceeding 1,200 mg/m3 in gas streams. Regenerative catalytic oxidizers (RCO) and regenerative thermal oxidizers are two main applications for the regenerative oxidation. However, factors influencing the performance of regenerative oxidation when treating VOCs in gas streams have seldom been addressed. Therefore, this study presents a convection-dispersion model with an effective thermal diffusivity (£\e ) as a parameter to simulate the performance of regenerative beds. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed model, a pilot-scale RCO was constructed with two 20-cm x 200-cm (ID x H) regenerative beds. Gravel was used as the thermal regenerative solid material. Experimental results indicated that the model with an £\e of 2.0-3.8 x 10-6 m2/s can be used to describe the time variation of solid temperatures with the packing height at superficial gas velocities (Ug ) of 0.080-0.382 Nm/s . Values of£\e for the bed are closer to those for the gravel solids (£\s = 1.0 x 10-6 m2/s) than for air (£\g = 54 x 10-6 m2/s). Those results demonstrate that the conductive heat transfer in the solid material in the axial direction of the bed is a major controlling factor for the performance of the RCO and the convective one is a minor factor in the present case. The above pilot RCO was then used to treat methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) and toluene, respectively, in air streams. The catalyst bed temperature was kept around 400oC and the Ug was operated at 0.234 Nm/s. This investigation measured and analyzed distributions of solid and gas temperatures with operating time and variations of VOC concentrations in the regenerative beds. The overall VOCs removal efficiency exceeded 98% for MEK of around 800 ppm as methane and 95% for toluene of around 400 ppm as methane. Degradation of MEK was believed to occur on the surface of solid material (gravel) in the temperature range of 330-400oC, which is much lower than its autoignition point, and toluene did not exhibit this phenomenon. The calculated energy conservation presents that RCO is an economic approach to treat VOCs, and it should be much further applied to industrial fields. Furthermore, based on the earlier empirical results of RCO, a series of plant scale low temperature regenerative oxidizers (LTRTOs) equipped with heating wires were constructed to treat VOC-laden gas streams. The regenerative beds were still packed with the same gravel which was applied to the above pilot RCO. Gas streams for performance tests were exhausted from manufacturing sections of varnishing, semiconductor packing, and petrochemical plants, respectively. Components of tested VOCs were comprised of several commercial solvents (e.g. ketone, toluene, iso-propanol, methanol, ethanol, formaldehyde, dimethylamine, and others). Results indicate that exceeding 98% of single or multiple VOCs with concentrations of less than 100 and increasingly to 7,000 ppm as methane would be effectively destroyed. Gas temperature variations with time at various bed depths were analyzed, and results confirm that the degradation of VOCs exists in the gravel beds at the temperatures ranging from 300 to 440oC, which are much lower than auto-ignition points of tested compounds. Moreover, the residence time for a gas stream passing through the main oxidation zone (Tg >300oC) in the regenerative beds is an essential criteria for LTRTO design and 1.0 s is recommended. These findings demonstrate that LTRTO is an effective approach to treat VOCs.

Obesity is a chronic condition that primarily develops from an increase in body fat in the form of white adipose tissue (WAT) mass. The resulting adiposity is a risk factor for many diseases, including type 2 diabetes (T2D), cardiovascular diseases, and some forms of cancer. Reducing WAT mass by targeted modulation of metabolic enzymes in fat cell metabolism is an attractive molecular therapeutic alternative to dietary approaches. In the present study, we exogenously up-regulate a novel respiratory uncoupling protein to increase substrate oxidation, and thereby control adipocyte fatty acid content. Increasing molecular evidence points to a family of uncoupling proteins (UCPs) playing an important role in adipocyte fat metabolism. Of specific interest is UCP1, which in brown adipocytes mediates energy dissipation as heat by de-coupling respiration and ATP synthesis. UCP1 is minimally expressed in white adipose tissue (WAT). We hypothesize that controlled expression of UCP1 in WAT will result in enhanced fatty acid oxidation to compensate for reduced ATP synthesis. We used a Tet-Off retroviral transfection system to express UCP1, with doxycycline being used to control the extent of expression. UCP1 cDNA was cloned into pRevTRE and was stably transfected into 3T3-L1 preadipocytes prior to differentiating them into adipocytes. A reporter gene (EGFP) was also transfected in parallel to optimize the transfection and preadipocyte differentiation conditions as well as to demonstrate regulated expression. Metabolite measurements showed that the UCP1-expressing adipocytes accumulated 83% less triglyceride and 85 % free fatty acids while maintaining constant ATP levels. These results suggest UCP1 and other metabolic enzymes as potential targets for development of pharmacological agents for the treatment of obesity and related disorders.

This research studied the effects of dietary lipids unsaturation or oxidation on growth, body composition, tissue oxidative status, and health of the juvenile cobia. Five isonitrogenous and isoenergetic experimental diets containing 20% crude lipid, among which 9% was fish oil and 11% was various supplemental oils, were evaluated. The supplemental oils included palm oil (FP), soybean oil (FS), fish oil (FO), oxidized fish oil (OF) and fish oil supplemented with 300 mg/kg diet vitamin E (FE). The degree of lipid oxidation in FE, FO and OF was increased progressively, and so was the degree of unsaturation in FP, FS and FO. The results of a 10-week growth trial showed that lipid unsaturation didn¡¦t affect fish groeth significantly, but lipid oxidation significantly reduced growth. Decrease in lipid unsaturation and increase in lipid oxidation significantly reduced the crude lipid level of ventral muscle but not that of dorsal muscle and liver. Decreasing lipid unsaturation significantly affected serum TC and LDL concentration. The tissue fatty acid composition was significantly affected by the dietary fatty acid composition. Degree of dietary lipid Oxidation was negatively correlated with tissue n-3 PUFA and HUFA concentrations. Muscle TBARS concentrations was significantly affected by dietary lipids oxidation, but not was liver TBARS. Muscle TBARS was decreased as dietary lipid unsaturation was decreased, especially in dorsal muscle. The degree of dietary lipid oxidation of was positively correlated with tissue TBARS. The supplement additional of vitamin E reduced muscle TBARS. Liver catalase activity was decreased when dietary lipid unsaturated was decreased. Even though lysozyme activity in serum, SOD activity in erythrocyte, oxidative burst activity and phagocytic activity in neutrophils, and intracellular superoxide anion ratio in head kidney macrophages were not significantly affected by dietary lipids unsaturation or oxidation, these parameters showed the lowest levels in the group of fish fed the OF diet, indicating the adverse effects of oil oxidation on fish immunity. The results of this research show that oxidation of dietary lipids was more prominent than unsaturation in affecting growth, body lipid composition, peroxidative status, and health of cobia.

Thesis--Chemistry : Columbia : 1940.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--California Institute of Technology, 1985. UM #85-22,625. / Advisor names found in the Acknowledgments pages of the thesis. Title from home page. Viewed 01/22/2010. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Worcester Polytechnic Institute. / Keywords: Fenton-like reagent; MTBE; hydroxyl radicals; Fenton's reagent; humic acids; bicarbonate and carbonate; UV/H₂O₂; advanced oxidation processes; kinetic modeling; Pd membrane; phenol; benzene; partial oxidation. Includes bibliographical references (p. 446-454).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Brown University, 2008. / Vita. Advisor: Paul G. Williard. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 127-138).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington State University, December 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Dec. 15, 2009). "Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture." Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1989.