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We are very happy to announce that from 7th June 2012, Prof. Raka Kamal has joined the team of Elixir Editorial Advisory Board. She will carry a special responsibility for dealing with manuscripts based on Botany and Biotechnology. Prof. Raka Kamal is currently associated with Department of Botany, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur-302004, India. The appointment of Prof. Raka Kamal as member Editorial Advisory Board strengthens the links and will make it easier for prospective authors to establish contact with the journal. Please send any expressions of interest to chiefeditor@elixirjournal.org. Sincerely Editor-in-Chief

In this paper, a medical image watermarking algorithm based on contourlet is proposed. Medical image watermarking is a special subcategory of image watermarking in the sense that images have special requirements. Watermarked medical images should not differ perceptually from their original counterparts because clinical reading of images must not be affected. Watermarking techniques based on wavelet transform are reported in many literatures but robustness and security using contourlet are better when compared to wavelet transform. The main challenge in exploring geometry in images comes from the discrete nature of the data. In this paper, original image is decomposed to two level using contourlet and the watermark is embedded in the resultant sub-bands. Sub-band selection is based on the value of Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) that is calculated between watermarked and original image. To extract the watermark, Kernel ICA is used and it has a novel characteristic is that it does not require the transformation process to extract the watermark. Simulation results show that proposed scheme is robust against attacks such as Salt and Pepper noise, Median filtering and rotation. The performance measures like PSNR and Similarity measure are evaluated and compared with Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) to prove the robustness of the scheme. Simulations are carried out using Matlab Software.

Reactive Distillation (RD) is the combination of chemical reaction and distillative product separation in single piece of equipment, offers a number of specific advantages over conventional sequential approach of reaction followed by distillation or other separation techniques. The experimental part includes RD experiments in laboratory scale, carefully evaluated database for describing chemical reaction and phase equilibria. The iso-amyl acetate synthesis is also carried out in a packed bed RD column operated in batch and continuous modes. This paper describes an investigation into experimental and simulation work of the heterogeneous esterification of acetic acid with iso-amyl alcohol, catalyzed by an acidic cation –exchange resin. The effects of the variables such as the reflux ratio, vapour rate and feed flow rate on iso-amyl acetate synthesis are studied experimentally. The simulations are based on the equilibrium-stage model approach. The simulation studies are performed in Aspen Plus and MATLAB. Finally results of sensitivity studies using Aspen plus are presented to show the optimum performance of RD column.

Along with the expansion of the municipal structure of the Chairman is elected directly by the local population is of particular importance. At an early stage in order to eliminate the overlap in local governance and territorial representatives of local authorities should be canceled. Experience has shown that the structure of the executive offices of the territorial local authorities so there is no need. In addition to expanding the powers of the municipal authorities to cancel it as soon as possible, to eliminate the overlap in local governancewill have a significant impact. Despite the use of different models of the world (especially in the developed countries) practice municipal associations goal is the same - all members agreed position regarding the formation of local authorities, within the country and abroad to represent the interests of municipalities is one of the main targets of the national assosasiations. Units of local self-government for the first time at the beginning of 70s of the last century Central European countries began to take shape. At a later stage - in the early 90s, similar structures independent Eastern European, Baltic and CIS countries were established.

The synthesis of various substituted 4-methoxy-1H-quinolin-2-thiones from various substituted aniline with malonicacid, phosphorous-oxychloride, sodium methoxide glacial acetic acid and thiourea under different conditions is described. The title compounds were synthesized from four steps; the first step involved the synthesis of substituted 2, 4-dichloro quinoline from aniline (substituted), with malonicacid and phosphorous-oxychloride. In the second step, the substituted 2, 4 Dichloro compound was heated with freshly prepared methanolic sodium methoxide solution to give 2, 4-dimethoxy quinoline compounds, it was then refluxed with glacial acetic acid and hydrochloric acid to get the substituted 4-methoxy-1H-quinolin-2-one. The final steps involves with an objective of introducing a chloro in the position 2 of the quinolone system, the substituted 4-methoxy-1H-quinolin-2-one was refluxed with distilled Pocl3 chloroform. The substituted 2-chloro-4-methoxy quinoline was then refluxed with thiourea and alcohol to get the titled compounds. The purity of the synthesized compound was judged by their C, H and N analysis and the structure was analyzed on the basics of Mass, FT-IR, and 1H NMR.

Metal oxides play a very important role in many areas of chemistry, physics and materials science.  The metal elements are able to form a large diversity of oxide compounds.  These can adopt a vast number of structural geometries with an electronic structure that can exhibit metallic, semiconductor or insulator character. In technological applications, oxides are used in the fabrication of microelectronic circuits, sensors, Piezo-electric devices, fuel cells, coatings for the passivation of surfaces against corrosion, and as catalysts. In the emerging field of nanotechnology, a goal is to make nanostructures or nanoarrays with special properties with respect to those of bulk or single particle species.  Oxide nanoparticles can exhibit unique physical and chemical properties due to their limited size and a high density of corner or edge surface sites. Amomg the metal oxides,  Magnesium oxide (MgO) is widely used in the chemical industry as a scrubber for air pollutant gases (CO₂, NO_X, SO_X) and as a catalyst support.  It exhibits a rock salt structure like oxides of other alkaline earth metals.  The non-polar (100) face is by far the most stable surface,  and particles of MgO usually display a cubic shape. For example, when Mg metal is burned in air or oxygen, the MgO smoke particles that are formed are almost perfect cubes having (100) faces.

An attempt has been made to prepare mixed metal oxide (MMO) nanoparticles of Zr, Al, Si by sol-gel route from commercially available zircon flour, fly ash and aluminum metal respectively. Isopropoxides of zirconium and silicon from zircon and isopropoxides of alumino silicates from fly ash were prepared in separate experiments by alkoxylation of corresponding fluorides/fluoro acids that were obtained by digesting separately, zircon and fly ash respectively in hydrofluoric acid. Aluminum isopropoxides was prepared by alkolxylation of sodium aluminate that was prepared by dissolving aluminum metal in sodium hydroxide. MMO nanoparticles was obtained by neutralizing the isopropoxides of zircon and fly ash (1:1, v/v) respectively with aluminum isopropoxide. SEM and TEM analysis of the MMO nanoparticles revealed that the average size of primary particle is in the range of 2nm to 4 nm. EDAX of MMO nanoparticles indicated presence of aluminum (Al), zirconium (Zr) and silicon (Si) and oxygen (O).Compressive strength of poly(methyl methacrylate) [PMMA] reinforced with MMO nanoparticles was found to be superior to that of neat PMMA and PMMA composites reinforced with MMO micron particles.

The main objective of the research presented herein was to developed poly(dodecyl phenol formaldehyde)-b-poly(oxypropylene) block copolymer for asphaltene precipitation problem and performance of some asphaltene inhibitors\dispersant for a heavy crude oil provided by the Hossia crude oil (Ras Gharib – Egyptian Eastern desert). The dispersants/inhibitors was synthesized in tow steps; 1) synthesis of poly(dodecyl phenol formaldehyde) resin (PDPF) at three different molecular weights (1936, 4047 and 8092) namely PDPF1, PDPF2 and PDPF3 respectively; 2) propoxylation of the prepared compounds to produce PDPF1-b-POP, PDPF2-b-POP and PDPF3-b-POP has molecular weight (3096, 5179 and 9202) respectively. All of the synthesized compounds were evaluated as asphaltene inhibitors/dispersants at 100, 500 and 1000 ppm using UV spectrophotometer. The molecular weights were determined by GPC. The chemical structure of the prepared compounds was confirmed by IR and H1NMR. The crude oil was analyzed by GC. The results also revealed distinct inhibition of asphaltene precipitation in crude oils.

Textile industry is the major source of water consumption and wastewater pollution.  There are various treatment techniques to remove textile wastewater pollution.  Textile wet processing unit involves a variety of chemicals comprising a various class of dyes along with huge amount of water resulting from wet processing operation. The conservations of chemical become a most important aspect for environment specially in consideration of the pollution phenomenon and increasing cost of chemicals in order to make the industry much more competitive in the globalize context. For that reason, liquid waste management and waste volume reduction by the product recovery are essential. In the case of India many wet processing industries and about 80% of these are woven fabric dyeing industries are needed to feed the fabric in the garments industries.  For these reasons, effluent treatment planning is a burning question for a wet processing unit. In order to solve these problems as textile technologist we should define many corrective measures.  This paper deals with the effluent standards and different wastages of woven fabric wet processing industries along with reverse osmosis treatment and SDI (Silt Density Index) explained in detail.  It also deals with the various advantages, comparison of RO feed and permeates, RO feed and reject parameters of Silica, Sulphate, Free Chlorine, Chlorides, Silicate and S.D.Index.  RO feed and permeate parameters Si reduced by – 95.46%, SO4 reduced by – 99.19%, Cl¯ reduced by – 94.51%, SiO2 reduced by – 95.22% and SDI reduced by – 100.00%.

Year-long supplies of fresh food have been made possible by improvements in controlled storage conditions, shipping and importing. A fresh weekly food supply at the local supermarket has eliminated the need for the home preservation and food processing of earlier days. Today, we may choose to preserve and process food for reasons besides availability such as the price of food, quality and nutrition. For these reasons, gardeners who find themselves with a surplus of fresh produce at the end of the season may decide to store and preserve. When conditions are not suitable for storage or immediate marketing of fresh produce, many horticultural crops can be processed using simple technologies. There are some processing methods that can be used by small-scale handlers, including drying, fermenting, canning, freezing, preserving and juicing which are highlighted in this review. Fruits, vegetables and flowers can all be dried and stored for use or sale in the future.