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Citrus bacterial canker, caused by Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri (Xcc), is a major disease of citrus plants, causing a significant loss in the citrus industry. The pthA is a bacterial effector protein mediates protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions and modulates host transcription. Injection of pthA effector protein into the host cell induces the expression of the susceptibility gene CsLOB1 which is required for citrus canker disease development. In this study, we described in planta expression of a specific anti-pthA single-chain variable fragment (scFv) recombinant antibody, scFvG8, and assessed its function using molecular docking, immunoblotting, and indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Based on the results, homology-based molecular docking suggested that at least eight intermolecular hydrogen bonds are involved in pthA-scFvG8 interactions. Immunoblotting and indirect ELISA results reconfirmed specific binding of scFvG8 to pthA protein. Moreover, gene fragment encoding scFvG8 was cloned into plant expression vector and transiently expressed in leaves of Nicotiana tabacum cv. Samson by agroinfiltration method. Transient expression of scFvG8 (at the expected size of 35 kDa) in N. tabacum leaves was confirmed by western blotting. Also, immunoblotting and indirect ELISA showed that the plant-derived scFvG8 had similar activity to purified scFvG8 antibody in detecting pthA. Additionally, in scFvG8-expressing tobacco leaves challenged with Xcc, a reduction (for up to 70%) of hypersensitive response (HR) possibly via direct interaction with pthA, was observed in the necrotic leaf area compared to control plants infected with empty vector. The results obtained in this study confirm that scFvG8 can suppress the function of pthA effector protein within plant cells, thus the induction of stable expression of scFvG8 in lime trees can be considered as an appropriate approach to confer resistance to Xcc.

In this paper, 20 wt%NiO–Al2O3 catalysts promoted by various promoters (iron, cobalt, manganese, and chromium oxides) were synthesized using the facile mechanochemical method, and their performance in the process of carbon dioxide methanation was investigated. The physicochemical features of the catalysts were examined by the XRD, BET, TPR, and FESEM analyses. The results showed that the catalyst promoted by manganese oxide has the best performance among the nickel-based catalysts due to the more adsorption of carbon dioxide and higher reducibility. The synthesized 20 wt%NiO-15 wt%Mn2O3–Al2O3 sample with a BET area of 258.79 m2/g showed 85.36% carbon dioxide conversion and 99.3% methane selectivity at 350 °C. According to the obtained results, the catalyst calcined at 500 °C showed the highest efficiency in this process. Furthermore, the 20 wt%NiO-15 wt%Mn2O3–Al2O3 catalyst showed high stability during 12 h of the reaction time.

In this artcile, methane catalytic oxidation was studied over the Ni/MgAl2O4 catalysts with different weight percentages of nickel oxide synthesized by a simple solid-state mechanochemical preparat...

In the present research, magnesium aluminate spinel was prepared as catalyst support using a novel, facile, and efficient mechanochemical method. The Co-promoted catalysts with 20 wt.% of Ni were fabricated using an impregnation route and the samples were analyzed by the X-ray diffraction (XRD), N2 adsorption/desorption (BET), temperature-programmed reduction and desorption (H2-TPR and O2-TPD), and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) tests. The results confirmed that all samples have a mesoporous structure with a high specific surface area and the presence of cobalt caused complete CH4 oxidation at low temperatures, and no side reactions were observed. The results indicated that the 3%Co-20%Ni/MgAl2O4 catalyst was the optimal sample among the prepared catalysts, owing to the improvement of reduction features and oxygen mobility. The 50 and 90% of methane conversion was obtained at 530 and 600 °C, respectively. Also, the influence of calcination temperature, GHSV, and feed ratio was determined on the catalytic activity. The obtained outcomes revealed that the calcination temperature has a significant effect on the textural properties and catalytic efficiency. The sample calcined at 700 °C showed the weakest performance, which was related to the sintering of particles at high temperatures. The catalytic stability showed that the 3%Co-20%Ni/MgAl2O4 has acceptable stability during 600 min time of reaction.

In this article, the catalytic activity of the copper catalysts with different loadings of copper oxides supported on α-MnO2 nanowires prepared by the simple hydrothermal route was studied in the CO preferential oxidation reaction. The x-ray diffraction (XRD), N2 adsorption/desorption, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, H2-temperature-programmed reduction (H2-TPR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses were used to characterize the synthesized samples. The obtained results showed that the 10 wt% CuO/MnO2 catalyst with the highest specific surface area and the lowest particle size demonstrated the highest CO conversion and CO2 selectivity in this reaction. The good catalytic performance of this catalyst was due to the beneficial synergistic interaction between copper and manganese. However, adding CO2 and/or H2O to the feedstock decreased the conversion and selectivity. Moreover, the effect of different parameters such as calcination temperature, O2/CO ratio, gas hourly space velocity (GHSV), and pretreatment conditions were investigated.

Ni–Al2O3 catalysts with different Ni percentages were prepared by a simple mechanochemical method, and the catalysts were employed in the methanation of CO2 for hydrogen purification. BET, XRD, EDS, SEM, TPR, TGA, and FTIR analyses were conducted to identify the chemicophysical characteristics of the prepared samples. The results confirmed that the simple mechanochemical synthesis method was operational and effective to synthesize the Ni catalysts with a high BET area (175.4–296.5 m2/g). With an increase in Ni percentage from 5 to 20 wt%, the size of the Ni particle increased from 2.7 nm to 7.8 nm, and also the BET area decreased from 296.5 to 175.4 m2/g. According to the TPR results, the reducibility of the samples improved with the increase of Ni content. Based on the catalytic performance results the catalyst with 15 wt% Ni and the BET area of 183.2 m2/g exhibited the best performance in methanation of CO2 (75.2% conversion of CO2 and 96.8% selectivity of CH4 at 400 °C). The 15Ni–Al2O3 catalyst showed stable stability during 10 h. CO methanation was investigated on the 15 wt%Ni–Al2O3 catalyst and the results showed that CO completely converted to CH4 at 300 °C.

In this study, a series of Ni/Cr2O3 catalysts with various Ni percentages were synthesized using a solvent-free mechanochemical method and the prepared catalysts were evaluated in CO2 methanation reaction. The influence of metal loading on the catalytic performance was investigated and it was found that increasing in Ni content improved both the carbon dioxide conversion and CH4 selectivity due to the increase in the concentration of active sites. It was evident that among the samples with different Ni loadings, the 20 wt%Ni/Cr2O3 catalyst demonstrated the highest catalytic performance. The catalytic performance of the Ni-Cr2O3 mixed oxide was also compared with Ni/Cr2O3 catalyst. The Ni-Cr2O3 mixed oxide catalyst was more active than the Ni/Cr2O3 catalyst and exhibited 68.98% CO2 conversion and 100% CH4 selectivity at 350 °C (H2/CO2 = 3 M ratio, GHSV = 18000 ml/gcat.h). The higher activity of the mixed oxide catalyst was due to the higher specific surface area, smaller crystalline size, and improved reducibility. Also, 20 wt%Ni-Cr2O3 composite catalyst exhibited high stability for 12 h at 300 °C in the CO2 methanation reaction. It was seen that the increase in H2/CO2 molar ratio from 2 to 5 and also the decrease in GHSV value and calcination temperature improved the catalytic activity.

Huanglongbing (HLB), caused by Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas), is an important and threatening disease for the citru s industry in southeast Iran. In the present study, seasonal dynamic monitoring of CLas was conducted by absolute real-time PCR. Plant materials were obtained across 7 and 6 months from December 2014 to October 2015 from three parts of the canopy of two naturally infected citrus species, Mexican lime (Citrus aurantifolia) and sweet orange (C. sinensis) located in two distinct geographical regions, Sistan-o-Baluchestan and Kerman provinces, respectively. Results showed significant variation (α = 0.001) in the bacterial titers in both infected hosts. These notable changes have also been observed in all tree’s canopy parts and a particular part of tree canopy during sampling months, exhibited by sudden changes in bacterial titers. It was also found that in both locations maximum titers of HLB occurred in summer. The data obtained by correlation assessment suggests a significant relationship between temperature and pathogen population variations that probably in warmer months correlated with the sap flow rate changes in the host, the bacterial titer was increased. In this study, no consistent pattern of the disease agent distribution was found between two different plant hosts. The results of this research on the quantification of CLas in the host plant can be a great help in making proper decisions for disease management by providing the possibility of early detection and rapid removal of inoculum sources.

The Methanation of CO2 to CH4 is a significant route to save energy and reduce CO2 emission. In this work, a series of Cr2O3–Al2O3 powders were synthesized by a novel and simple solid-state method and considered as the carrier for the nickel catalysts in CO2 methanation. The BET area and pore volume of the supports decreased with the decrease in Al2O3/Cr2O3 molar ratio. The results indicated that the increase in Cr2O3 content improved the catalytic performance and 15 wt%Ni/Cr2O3 catalyst exhibited the highest CO2 conversion of 80.51%, and 100% CH4 selectivity at 350 °C. The results indicated that the CO2 conversion improved with the increment in H2/CO2 molar ratio from 2 to 5. The improvement in CO2 conversion was also observed with decreasing GHSV due to the longer residence time of the reactants on the catalyst surface. Also, the results showed that increasing calcination temperature led to a decrease in CO2 conversion. The 15 wt%Ni/Cr2O3 catalyst exhibited high stability in carbon dioxide methanation reaction.

In this study, a simple solid-state synthesis method was employed for the preparation of the Ni–Co–Al2O3 catalysts with various Co loadings, and the prepared catalysts were used in CO2 methanation reaction. The results demonstrated that the incorporation of cobalt in nickel-based catalysts enhanced the activity of the catalyst. The results showed that the 15 wt%Ni-12.5 wt%Co–Al2O3 sample with a specific surface area of 129.96 m2/g possessed the highest catalytic performance in CO2 methanation (76.2% CO2 conversion and 96.39% CH4 selectivity at 400 °C) and this catalyst presented high stability over 10 h time-on-stream. Also, CO methanation was investigated and the results showed a complete CO conversion at 300 °C.

Climate change due to global warming is one of the worst environmental disasters in the world, which affects all ecosystems and has led to increasing degradation of coral reefs. The increase of sea surface temperature is inversely related to the resistance of corals and is directly associated with their bleaching. High temperature disrupts the symbiotic relationship between coral and algal symbiont and results in coral bleaching. To evaluate the adaptation of corals to heat stress, in this study, we investigated the thermal stress effect on the expression of genes involved in programmed cell death (PCD), cysteinyl aspartate proteases 3 (will be mentioned as Caspas3 hereafter) and anti-apoptotic pathway, B-cell lymphoma 2 (will be mentioned as Bcl2 hereafter) in Porites lobata (Dana, 1846). Corals were incubated at 25°C for 2 weeks (adaptation period) and then exposed to 34°C (heat shock) for 24 and 48 hours. Then, the expression of genes was measured using real-time PCR. The results revealed that both genes were up-regulated at 24 hours after heat induction. Bcl-2 expression (anti-apoptotic gene) was induced at 24 hours and was down-regulated at 48 hours. In contrast, Caspase3 (apoptotic gene) continued to be expressed up to 48 hours. These results might indicate that coral cells are headed towards bleaching and death with increased temperature. The results of this study, regarding the observed expression patterns, can clarify the response of different genes to a thermal stress in coral reefs. The exposure of corals to acute conditions with high temperatures presented the behavior of the desired genes in the studied conditions.

The advent of computational methods for efficient prediction of the druglikeness of small molecules and their ever-burgeoning applications in the fields of medicinal chemistry and drug industries have been a profound scientific development, since only a few amounts of the small molecule libraries were identified as approvable drugs. In this study, a deep belief network was utilized to construct a druglikeness classification model. For this purpose, small molecules and approved drugs from the ZINC database were selected for the unsupervised pre-training step and supervised training step. Various binary fingerprints such as Macc 166 bit, PubChem 881 bit, and Morgan 2048 bit as data features were investigated. The report revealed that using an unsupervised pre-training phase can lead to a good performance model and generalizability capability. Accuracy, precision, and recall of the model for Macc features were 97%, 96%, and 99%, respectively. For more consideration about the generalizability of the model, the external data by expression and investigational drugs in drug banks as drug data and randomly selected data from the ZINC database as non-drug were created. The results confirmed the good performance and generalizability capability of the model. Also, the outcomes depicted that a large proportion of misclassified non-drug small molecules ascertain the bioavailability conditions and could be investigated as a drug in the future. Furthermore, our model attempted to tap potential opportunities as a drug filter in drug discovery.

To investigate the importance of monolignol biosynthesis and the role ofThirty T1 plants were produced via floral dip transformation followed by glyphosate spraying that was used in the first step of screening procedures and were confirmed by PCR method. Transgene's T-DNA copy number variation, T-DNA CNV, in T1 and T2 progenitors were determined using digital droplet PCR (ddPCR) and the occurrence of mutation in the three copies ofIn the T1 generation, 25 plants were confirmed which had between one to nine T-DNA copies in the corresponding Camelina genome. In T2 generation the population were screened for potential mutation inUsing ddPCR it easily was possible to identify both the T-DNA CNV and occurrence of mutation in CsCCR4 homeologues in T1 and T2 progenitors. We illustrated that CRISPR/Cas9-mediated mutation is a decent technique that can be utilized to expedite the mutant line development which could assist to figure out the activity of a CsCCR4 gene in defense responses to the pathogens in C. sativa as prospective oilseed crop for biodiesel production.

In this work, the effects of Ni metal phase and Ce promoter over xNi-yCe/MgAl2O4 (x = 2.75, 5, 10, 15, 17.07 wt% and y = 0.17, 1, 3, 5, 5.83 wt%) catalysts were systematically studied in steam reforming of propane (SRP). Catalysts were synthesized by co-impregnation of Ni(NO3)2.6H2O and Ce(NO3)2.9H2O on the co-precipitated support with MgO/Al2O3 stoichiometric ratio of 1.0. Based on the catalyst structure, the XRD, N2 adsorption-desorption, H2-TPR, SEM, EDX mapping, TG-DTA, and Raman spectroscopy were used to explain the catalyst performance. The C3H8 conversion, H2 yield, and stability were evaluated at T = 600 °C, GHSV = 30000 ml/(h.grcat), H2O/C3H8 = 3, and P = 1 atm during 420 (min) reaction time. Loading Ni on the MgAl2O4 support resulted in beneficial C3H8 conversion and H2 yield, however, it worsens the catalyst performance in long term reaction as a result of more coke formation. The good performance of Ce-promoted catalysts might be attributed to small crystallite size, high specific surface area, and low carbon deposition on the catalyst surface. Moreover, as suggested by TPR and XRD, the interaction between Ce and Ni may prevent Ni from distributing inside the support structure (solid solution), avoiding the catalyst from later coking. The optimum catalyst of 11.85Ni-3.55Ce was achieved using the central composite design (CCD) method, considering the maximum C3H8 conversion and H2 yield as well as minimum deactivation. The C3H8 conversion, H2 yield, and deactivation were experimentally lead to 96%, 63%, and 1%, respectively, and were in good agreement with predicted data by developed CCD method.

The effects of nickel loading and type of promoter on the performance of xNi/MgAl2O4 (x=5, 10, and 15 wt%) and 10Ni-3M/MgAl2O4 (M=Ce, La, Cu, Fe) catalysts, respectively, in steam reforming of propane (SRP) were investigated. The catalyst support (MgAl2O4) was synthesized by co-precipitation method with a MgO/Al2O3 mole ratio of 1.0. The catalysts were then prepared by impregnation of nitrates of nickel and promoters on the support. The catalysts were characterized by the XRD, nitrogen adsorption-desorption, TPR, SEM, EDX mapping, and TGA, and the SRP performance was evaluated in a fixed bed reactor at reaction temperature=500–700 °C, pressure=1 atm, C3H8:N2: steam feed ratio=1:1:3, and GHSV=30,000 ml/(h·gcat) during 420 min time on stream. The results indicated that C3H8 conversion, H2 yield, and catalyst stability varied significantly with nickel loading and type of promoter in the catalyst. The 10Ni/MgAl2O4 catalyst showed highest C3H8 conversion (78%), H2 yield (49%), and stability (96%) as compared to the other unpromoted catalysts due to optimum nickel loading and less carbon deposition. Moreover, cerium promoter remarkably enhanced the performance of 10Ni-3Ce/MgAl2O4 catalyst (C3H8 conversion=93%, H2 yield=60%, and stability= 100%) via more coke gasification in the course of SRP reaction.

In this article mesoporous nanocrystalline 5 wt%M-95 wt%MgAl 2 O 4 (M: CeO 2 , ZrO 2 , La 2 O 3 ) powders were prepared by a novel on-step sol-gel process and employed as a support for the synthesis of 5 wt%Ni catalysts for synthesis gas production via dry reforming. The magnesium aluminate spinel prepared with this sol-gel method possessed a high BET area of 264 m 2 g −1 with a high pore volume of 0.436 cm 3 g −1 . The results indicated that the addition of promoters (CeO 2 , ZrO 2 , La 2 O 3 ) to magnesium aluminate improved the BET area and pore volume and also decreased the crystallite size. Among the prepared powders and catalysts, 5 wt%La 2 O 3 -95 wt%MgAl 2 O 4 and 5 wt%Ni/5 wt%CeO 2 -95 wt%MgAl 2 O 4 exhibited the highest BET area of 306 m 2 g −1 and 263 m 2 g −1 , respectively. The catalytic results indicated that the 5 wt%Ni/5 wt%CeO 2 -95 wt%MgAl 2 O 4 catalyst exhibited the highest activity and the lowest carbon formation among the prepared catalysts with the same content of the promoter. The influence of the CeO 2 content on the textural and catalytic performance was also investigated and the results illustrated that the increment in CeO 2 content improved the methane conversion and reduced the amount of deposited carbon, which could be related to the redox properties of the catalyst support.

The effects of distinct and simultaneous calcination and reduction (DCR & SCR) processes were determined over 10Ni/SiO2 catalyst. The results showed that the C3H8 conversion and H2 yield increased from 69% to 51% for DCR to 91% and 64% for SCR catalyst. Calcination before reduction seemed to be resulting in the construction of larger Ni particles and it may be due to partial phyllosilicates decomposition. According to the initial tests, to elevate the C3H8 conversion and H2 yield, the effects of promoters such as La, Ce, K, and Sr were examined on the catalyst performance. Activity test illustrated that K and Sr declined the propane conversion and H2 yield, however, Ce and La increased them. Synthesized catalysts were characterized using XRD, BET, H2-TPR, SEM, and TGA/DTA to determine the structural properties. Consistent with BET and XRD analysis, K and Sr had the low surface area and large Ni crystallite size, contributing to coke deposition on the catalyst surface. Among the promoted samples, La-containing catalyst showed good activity and then, in the rest of this work, 10Ni-yLa/SiO2 (y = 2, 5, 8 wt%) catalysts were examined. The results showed that 10Ni 2La/SiO2 catalyst improved the particle dispersion and decreased the particle size so that specific surface area and porous volume were maximized and minimized, respectively. 10Ni 2La/SiO2 catalyst at GHSV of 45000 (ml/h.gcat), the temperature of 640C, and S/C = 3 in 420 min time-on-stream showed the best performance, that is C3H8 conversion of 95% and H2 yield of 69% in propane steam reforming (PSR).

Gas condensate reservoirs as a proportion of worldwide gas reservoirs experiencing retrograde condensation throughout their production period have been consistently attracting research interests in recent decades. However, their compositional simulators usually consider local equilibrium assumption and neglect the non-equilibrium effect represented by gas phase mass transfer coefficients. Since no independent research has yet targeted mass transfer coefficients in gas condensate reservoirs, in this study, a series of flow tests were carried out using a novel experimental setup to address the issue. Correspondingly, separate empirical correlations were developed for methane and isobutane representing light and intermediate components respectively at two temperatures, thus two condensate saturation ranges. The results confirm the positive effect of pore gas velocity on gas phase mass transfer coefficients reported in NAPL volatilization related studies even in low gas flow rates. Also temperature, effective diffusion coefficient, condensate saturation, mean grain size and component types were shown to affect these coefficients.

Ni and Ni-Co catalysts supported on CeO2-ZnAl2O4 have been prepared, characterized and evaluated in the methane dry reforming. The characterization tests showed that the presence of cobalt improved the physical/chemical properties of the catalyst by increasing surface area, reduction in the active particle size and strengthen the active phase/support interaction which resulted in coke deposit resistance accompanied by little impact on initial activity. In addition to the geometric effects of Co, the higher stability exhibited by Co-doped catalyst could be attributed to the enhancement of coke gasification due to the high tendency of cobalt towards oxygenated species like CO2.

Aspergillus flavus is a major fungal pathogen of plants and an opportunistic pathogen of humans. In addition to the direct impact of infection, it produces immunosuppressive and carcinogenic aflatoxins. The early detection of A. flavus is therefore necessary to diagnose and monitor fungal infection, to prevent aflatoxin contamination of food and feed, and for effective antifungal therapy. Aspergillus-specific monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are promising as diagnostic and therapeutic reagents for the tracking and treatment of Aspergillus infections, respectively. However, A. flavus has a complex cell wall composition and dynamic morphology, hindering the discovery of mAbs with well-characterized targets. Here we describe the generation and detailed characterization of mAb5.52 (IgG2aκ) and mAb17.15 (IgG1κ), which bind specifically to the highly immunogenic cell wall antigen A. flavus mannoprotein 1 (Aflmp1). Both mAbs were generated using hybridoma technology following the immunization of mice with a recombinant truncated version of Aflmp1 (ExD, including the homologous CR4 domain) produced in bacteria. We show that mAb5.52 and mAb17.15 bind specifically to A. flavus and A. parasiticus cell wall fragments (CWFs), with no cross-reaction to CWFs from other fungal pathogens. Immunofluorescence microscopy revealed that both mAbs bind to the surface of Aspergillus hyphae and that mAb17.15 also binds to spores. The epitope for both mAbs is localized within the CR4 region of the Aflmp1 protein. These Aspergillus-specific mAbs may be useful for the early detection of fungal infection in food/feed crops, for serodiagnosis in patients with invasive aspergillosis caused by A. flavus infection and for the development of antibody-expressing disease-resistant crops.

Propane conversion to aromatics was carried out in a two-zone fluidized bed reactor (TZFBR) over Zn/HZSM-5 catalyst. At the steady state condition the coke formation in the TZFBR was counteracted with continuous catalyst regeneration by oxygen. In the lower part of the reactor, the oxidation and combustion of deposited coke on the catalyst surface were achieved with a necessary amount of oxygen. The aromatization reaction takes place in the upper part. In order to ensure the stability of the TZFBR performance, the propane aromatization was carried out in the conventional fluidized and fixed bed reactors in the absence of oxidant. Because of the catalyst regeneration, the high propane conversion and selectivity to aromatics were obtained in the TZFBR. The effects of the main operating variables such as: O 2 mole percentage, height of the propane feed entry point, bed temperature and relative velocity were studied and the optimum experimental conditions were considered.

In this study, the catalytic performance of the CeO2 promoted Ni-MgO-Al2O3 catalysts with different preparation methods was studied in carbon dioxide reforming of methane (CDRM) for the production of synthesis gas. The nitrogen adsorption/desorption (BET), X-ray diffraction (XRD), temperature-programmed reduction and oxidation (TPR and TPO), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques were used to characterize the samples. The obtained results showed that the Ce addition to Ni-MgO-Al2O3 catalyst with the high specific surface area has a significant influence on the metal crystallite size, reduction properties, and coke deposition. The CeO2-Ni-MgO-Al2O3 catalyst with cerium content of 3 wt.% prepared by the impregnation method possessed the highest resistance against carbon formation in CDRM. In addition, the catalytic results confirmed that the feed ratio (CO2/CH4) and GHSV affected the catalytic activity. However, the CH4 and CO2 conversions improved when the cerium was added to Ni-MgO-Al2O3 catalysts.

The kinetic studies of propane aromatization reaction over Zn/ /HZSM-5 catalyst at temperature of 500–560 °C and space velocity of 500– –2500 cm 3 g cat -1 h -1 , in a plug flow reactor, under catalyst deactivating con­di­tions were performed. A lumped kinetic model consisting of six lumped com­ponents and six reaction steps was proposed to describe the aromatization of propane. The kinetic model involves 18 kinetic parameters and one catalyst deactivation constant. The reaction steps orders were obtained by the power law model. Frequency factors and the apparent activation energies of the react­ion steps were calculated based on the Arrhenius equation. An exponential function depending on the time-on-stream was applied for the catalyst deacti­vation model and the kinetic parameters were calculated via a genetic algo­rithm. The kinetic results indicated that the lumped kinetic model can well estimate the product yields of propane aromatization.

Preservation of elite key lime (Citrus aurantifolia) genotypes using efficient micropropagation and regeneration protocols is very important for new breeding programmes. The objective of the present study was to develop an efficient protocol for micropropagation and maintenance of elite genotypes of key lime based on slow growth and starvation strategy. To do this, regenerated shoots were starved, and the growth was compromised via avoiding subcultures for 4, 8, 12 and 24 months. The numbers of responsive explants and adventitious shoots per each explant were evaluated in the presence of benzylaminopurine (BAP). The results showed that the 12- and 24-month starved explants treated with 1 mg/l BAP were able to produce four times more shoots than the control. In addition, the influences of horizontal or vertical layering explants over medium were evaluated. The results indicated that all horizontally layered explants significantly produced 25% adventitious shoots more than vertical explants, most li...

The catalytic performance of Ni supported on Ce-promoted ZnAl2O4 was evaluated in methane dry reforming. The effect of different nominal loadings of cerium (3, 5 and 7 wt%) in the activity, product yield and stability was studied. Ce presented a promote effect in catalytic activity, product yield and especially in stability. However the catalytic performance was considerably influenced by the amount of cerium. SEM images presented smaller particles and TPR profiles revealed stronger active phase/support interaction by Ce addition which led to increasing methane conversion and decreasing coke deposition. Although high amount of Ce was not in favor of its promoting effect due to aggregation of CeO2 on the catalyst surface. Among the catalysts investigated, the optimal catalytic activity and stability was achieved over the sample with 5 wt% of cerium.

In this paper, CH 4 reforming with CO 2 was studied over Ni MgO Al 2 O 3 catalysts with various Ni contents for the production of syngas (a mixture of H 2 and CO). Mesoporous nanocrystalline Ni MgO Al 2 O 3 catalysts with the high specific surface area were prepared using a simple co-precipitation method. The samples were characterized by N 2 adsorption/desorption (BET), X-ray diffraction (XRD), temperature-programmed reduction and oxidation (TPR and TPO), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. The prepared catalysts exhibited high catalytic performance (activity and stability) in dry reforming reaction. The obtained results indicated that the increase in nickel content increased both the reactant conversions and the amount of deposited carbon (whisker type carbon) on nickel catalysts. In addition, the effect of feed ratio was examined and the results showed that the increase in CO 2 /CH 4 molar ratio from 0.5 to 3.0 increased the methane conversion and decreased the carbon dioxide conversion. With the increase of gas hourly space velocity (GHSV), the methane and carbon dioxide conversions decreased.