One of the most challenging issues concerning the gasification of oil palm fronds (OPF) is the presence of tar and particulates formed during the process considering its high volatile matter content. In this study, a tar sampling train custom built based on standard tar sampling protocols was used to quantify the gravimetric concentration of tar (g/Nm3) in syngas produced from downdraft gasific...

The TAR hairpin of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) RNA genome is essential for virus replication. TAR forms the binding site for the transcriptional trans-activator protein Tat and multiple additional TAR functions have been proposed. We previously constructed an HIV-1 variant in which the TAR-Tat transcription control mechanism is replaced by the components of the Tet-ON regula...

Wood is a porous three dimensional, hydroscopic, viscoelastic, anisotropic bio-polymer composite composed of an interconnecting matrix of cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin with minor amounts of inorganic elements and organic extractives. Some, but not all, of the cell wall polymer hydroxyl groups are accessible to moisture and these accessible hydroxyls form hydrogen bonds with water. As the...

the influence of initial moisture content on wood decay at different levels of atmospheric oxygen concentration was studied. three fungi, coriolus versicolor (c. versicolor) a white rot, coniophora puteana (c. puteana) a brown rot, and chaetomium globosum (c. globosum) a soft rot, were chosen. the mycelia of the fungi were inoculated in to mini blocks of fagus sylvatica (beech) and pinus sy...

Tartrazine (Tar) is a yellow colorant widely used in food products, drugs and cosmetics. The current study evaluates the effect of ingestion of Tar at doses of 1%, 3% of diet on depression, anxiety and antisocial behavior then comparing between its effect and the combined effect of each dose with curcumin (Cur) (natural yellow color). Forced swimming test, open field test and social interaction...

Blood nicotine, cotinine, and carboxyhaemoglobin (COHb) concentrations were measured in 392 smokers (255 women and 137 men) of "middle tar" (17-22 mg), "low to middle" (11-16 mg), and "low tar" (less than 11 mg) cigarettes. Since tar intake cannot yet be measured directly, we devised an index to estimate it based on the use of measured levels of an intake marker (eg, blood nicotine) and the rat...

STUDY OBJECTIVE The aim was to determine if there was a relationship between cigarette tar yield and rates of chronic cough and chronic phlegm. SETTING 22 districts across Scotland were used for the Scottish Heart Health Study (SHHS) which was conducted between 1984 and 1986 and from which the data for this analysis were obtained. SUBJECTS 10,359 men and women aged 40-59 years were studied....

The HIV-2 TAR RNA domain (TAR-2) plays a key role in the trans-activation of HIV-2 transcription as it is the target for the Tat-2 protein and several cell factors. Here, we show that the TAR-2 domain exists in vitro in two global, alternative forms: a new, extended hairpin form with two conformers and the already proposed branched hairpins form. This points strongly to the structural polymorph...

Co-pyrolysis of Shenmu coal (SM) and cotton stalk (CS) at different blend ratios were carried out in a tubular furnace. The pyrolysis temperature was up to 600 °C at 5 °C/min and kept for 15 min. The results indicated that there was an interactive effect between SM and CS, which increased the tar yield. Moreover, the content of light components in co-pyrolysis tar from all CS/SM blend ratios wa...

Numerous studies, mostly case reports, have found that occupational exposure to coal tars or coal-tar pitches (coal-tar distillates) is associated with skin cancer, including scrotal cancer; workers in these studies have included patent-fuel (coal-briquette) workers, pitch loaders, workers in electrical trades, and optical-lens polishers (IARC 1985, 1987). A 1946 study in the United Kingdom fou...