http://www.hindawi.comThe latest articles from Hindawi Publishing Corporation© 2012, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2012/574596/This article provided a research for the trend of heat transfer and flow field through a 2-dimensional wavy duct. To construct a grid mesh, the physical domain was transferred to the computational domain and finite volume scheme was used for discretizing the governing equations. Through the simulation, the flow regime stayed in laminar mode. Constant temperature boundary condition has been used for solid walls. Air was used as a working fluid. Existence of waves makes some phenomenon like flow separation. Effect of Reynolds number, wave width, and wave number has been analyzed and velocity distribution, heat transfer coefficient, and tangential stress were computed for different cases. The final results were compared with the same straight duct. The entropy generation minimization method has been used for better comparison between final results.Ouldouz Nourani Zonouz and Mehdi SalmanpourCopyright © 2012 Ouldouz Nourani Zonouz and Mehdi Salmanpour. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2012/791870/The accretion of relativistic and nonrelativistic fluids into a Reissner-Nordström black hole is revisited. The position of the critical point, the flow velocity at this point, and the accretion rate are only slightly affected with respect to the Schwarzschild case when the fluid is nonrelativistic. On the contrary, relativistic fluids cross the critical point always subsonically. In this case, the sonic point is located near the event horizon, which is crossed by the fluid with a velocity less than the light speed. The accretion rate of relativistic fluids by a Reissner-Nordström black hole is reduced with respect to those estimated for uncharged black holes, being about 60% less for the extreme case (charge-to-mass ratio equal to one).J. A. de Freitas PachecoCopyright © 2012 J. A. de Freitas Pacheco. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2011/432132/The experimental evaluation of the vapor pressure of saturated aqueous solutions of potassium sulfate was carried out in the range of temperatures 310 K≤T≤345 K. The experimental data were used to determine the corresponding values of the water activity in such solutions. The analytical expressions as a function of temperature of both, vapor pressure and water activity, were obtained from the correlation of the experimental results. The vapor pressure expression was also extrapolated to a different temperature range in order to make a comparison with the results obtained by other authors.Matias O. Maggiolo, Francisco J. Passamonti, and Abel C. ChialvoCopyright © 2011 Matias O. Maggiolo et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2011/137531/The effects of synthetic food colorants like tartrazine (TTZ), sunset yellow (SY), and erythrosine (ETS) on the binding reaction between ciprofloxacin hydrochloride (CPFX) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) were investigated by fluorescence spectroscopy in the aqueous solution of pH = 7.40. Results showed that CPFX caused the fluorescence quenching of BSA through a static quenching procedure and the primary binding site was located at subdomain IIA of BSA (site I). According to the calculated thermodynamic parameters, it confirmed that CPFX bound to BSA by electrostatic interaction. In addition, the colorants affected the formation of BSA-CPFX complex. This resulted in an increase of the free, biological active fraction of CPFX. The binding distance of BSA-CPFX systems was evaluated according to Förster's theory. Results suggested that the binding distance were increased in the presence of synthetic food colorants.Baosheng Liu, Chao Yang, Jing Wang, Chunli Xue, and Yunkai LüCopyright © 2011 Baosheng Liu et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2011/203203/To describe the nonequilibrium states of a system, we introduce a new thermodynamic parameter—the lifetime of a system. The statistical distributions which can be obtained out of the mesoscopic description characterizing the behaviour of a system by specifying the stochastic processes are written down. The change in the lifetime values by interaction with environment is expressed in terms of fluxes and sources. The expressions for the nonequilibrium entropy, temperature, and entropy production are obtained, which at small values of fluxes coincide with those derived within the frame of extended irreversible thermodynamics. The explicit expressions for the lifetime of a system and its thermodynamic conjugate are obtained.Vasiliy Vasiliy RyazanovCopyright © 2011 Vasiliy Vasiliy Ryazanov. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2011/282354/The phase behaviour of mixtures of supercritical propene and a number of polypropenes, which have a similar density but significantly different molecular weights and tacticities, was investigated in a broad range of polymer weight fractions and temperatures at high pressures. The cloud-point pressures were measured optically, using a view cell which was equipped with two windows made of synthetic sapphire and a metal bellows to accurately adjust the pressure. The cloud-point pressures were found in the range from 29 to 37 MPa decreasing with increasing polymer weight fraction and increasing with increasing temperature and polymer molecular weight. The critical weight fraction was found below 2 to 6 wt.-%. Whereas the cloud-point pressures of atactic and syndiotactic samples were high and very similar, the isotactic species exhibit distinctly lower values. The results, extrapolated to lower temperatures, show good agreement with the literature data.Oliver Ruhl, Gerhard Luft, Patrick Brant, and John Richard ShuttCopyright © 2011 Oliver Ruhl et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2011/676495/We formulate the thermodynamics of economic systems in terms of an arbitrary probability distribution for a conserved economic quantity. As in statistical physics, thermodynamic macroeconomic variables emerge as the mean value of microeconomic variables, and their determination is reduced to the computation of the partition function, starting from an arbitrary function. Explicit hypothetical examples are given which include linear and nonlinear economic systems as well as multiplicative systems such as those dominated by a Pareto law distribution. It is shown that the macroeconomic variables can be drastically changed by choosing the microeconomic variables in an appropriate manner. We propose to use the formalism of phase transitions to study severe changes of macroeconomic variables.Hernando Quevedo and María N. QuevedoCopyright © 2011 Hernando Quevedo and María N. Quevedo. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2011/696548/Reliable equations of state are very important in the design of refrigeration cycles, since thermodynamic properties can be calculated by simple differentiation. In this paper, a new method to calculate the parameters of any two-parameter equation of state is presented. The method is based on the use of Clapeyron equation and the experimental PVT data. This method was tested on a newly developed cubic equation of state and proved to be simple and fast. Results showed orders of magnitude enhancement in prediction of the saturated vapor pressure even near the critical region. The Percent Absolute Average Deviation (%AAD) was always less than 0.1 in the studied cases. It also showed that the parameters calculated using the original equation deviate strongly from the “experimental” values as the temperature decreases below the critical point. This method can be used to redefine the temperature dependences of these parameters and develop new mixing rules for the mixtures.Isam H. AljundiCopyright © 2011 Isam H. Aljundi. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2011/194353/The extension of the saturation curve Ps(T) on the PT diagram in the supercritical region for a number of monocomponent supercritical fluids by peak values for different thermophysical properties, such as heat capacities Cp and Cv and compressibility has been studied. These peaks signal about some sort of fluid structural transition in the supercritical region. Different methods give similar but progressively diverging curves Pst(T) for this transition. The zone of temperatures and pressures near these curves can be named as the zone of the fluid structural transition. The outstanding properties of supercritical fluids in this zone help to understand the physical sense of the fluid structural transition.Boris I. SedunovCopyright © 2011 Boris I. Sedunov. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2011/730960/The Group Contribution Equation of State (GC-EoS) was extended to represent high-pressure phase equilibria behavior of mixtures containing mono-, di-, triglycerides, and carbon dioxide (CO2). For this purpose, the alcohol-ester and the alcohol-triglyceride binary group interaction parameters were regressed in this work, using experimental phase equilibria data from the literature. The capability of the parameters obtained was assessed by applying the GC-EoS model to simulate the supercritical CO2 fractionation of a complex glyceride mixture, which was produced by the ethanolysis of sunflower oil. Experimental data was obtained in a countercurrent packed extraction column at pressures ranging from 16 to 25 MPa and temperatures from 313 to 368 K. The GC-EoS model was applied in a completely predictive manner to simulate the phase equilibria behavior of the multistage separation process. The chemical analysis of the glyceride mixture allowed a significant simplification of its complex composition and thus, a simple and satisfactory simulation of the supercritical extraction process was achieved.Tiziana Fornari, Daniel Tenllado, Carlos Torres, and Guillermo RegleroCopyright © 2011 Tiziana Fornari et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2011/491350/Two-phase flow dynamics are highly complex, due to the strong coupling of various independent mechanisms and as demonstrated by the existence of a variety of flow patterns. The adoption of appropriate tools for nonlinear time series analysis tools may lead to a deeper insight in this complexity but requires high quality time series. This study describes a procedure appositely assessed in order to realise an impedance void fraction sensor of resistive type characterised by high-spatial and -temporal resolution. These characteristics have been accomplished through an appropriate geometrical design of the probe electrodes, aiming at obtaining a thin measurement volume so to improve the probe spatial resolution, and through the electronic assessment of the data acquisition system, improving its temporal resolution. A new calibration procedure has been also defined, based on an estimation of void fraction through a code for automatic extraction of bubble contours and the correction of image distortions.L. Cantelli, A. Fichera, and A. PaganoCopyright © 2011 L. Cantelli et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2011/839468/A double shell-pass shell-and-tube heat exchanger with continuous helical baffles (STHXCH) has been invented to improve the shell-side performance of STHXCH. At the same flow area, the double shell-pass STHXCH is compared with a single shell-pass STHXCH and a conventional shell-and-tube heat exchanger with segmental baffles (STHXSG) by means of numerical method. The numerical results show that the shell-side heat transfer coefficients of the novel heat exchanger are 12–17% and 14–25% higher than those of STHXSG and single shell-pass STHXCH, respectively; the shell-side pressure drop of the novel heat exchanger is slightly lower than that of STHXSG and 29–35% higher than that of single shell-pass STHXCH. Analyses of shell-side flow field show that, under the same flow rate, double shell-pass STHXCH has the largest shell-side volume average velocity and the most uniform velocity distribution of the three STHXs. The shell-side helical flow pattern of double shell-pass STHXCH is more similar to longitudinal flow than that of single shell-pass STHXCH. Its distribution of fluid mechanical energy dissipation is also uniform. The double shell-pass STHXCH might be used to replace the STHXSG in industrial applications to save energy, reduce cost, and prolong the service life.Shui Ji, Wen-jing Du, Peng Wang, and Lin ChengCopyright © 2011 Shui Ji et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2011/605712/Studying the nonisothermal kinetics of degradation of rice husks in air or nitrogen atmosphere, polypropylene and tetrafluoroethylene-ethylene copolymer filled with different quantities of rice husks flour or the products of its thermal degradation, namely “white” or “black” rice husks ash, a linear dependence was observed between the ln⁡⁡A and EA, known as the kinetic compensation effect or theta rule. A linear relationship was also established between EA and the change of the entropy ΔS≠ for the formation of the activated complex from the reagents. These dependences are related to the assumption of identical kinetic mechanisms of thermal degradation of the composites studied. The negative values of ΔS≠ obtained show that the activated complex is a “more organized” structure than the initial reactants and that these reactions may be classified as “slow” ones. It may be concluded that the products of the thermal degradation of rice husks in a fluidized bed reactor can successfully replace the more expensive synthetic fillers to obtain different polymer composites. These polymer composites can lead to the futuristic “organic-inorganic hybrid materials” with specific properties.Sevdalina Turmanova, Svetlana Genieva, and Lyubomir VlaevCopyright © 2011 Sevdalina Turmanova et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2011/978324/This work investigates the ability of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium ethylsulphate ([emim][EtSO4]) as a green and tuneable solvent for denitrification and desulphurization of diesel oil. Experimental density, surface tension, and refractive index data have been measured for the following systems: [emim][EtSO4](1) + pyridine(2), [emim][EtSO4](1)+ pyrrole(2), [emim][EtSO4](1) + quinoline(2), [emim][EtSO4](1) + indoline(2), [emim][EtSO4](1) + thiophene(2), and [emim][EtSO4](1) + water(2) over the entire mole fraction of [emim][EtSO4] at temperatures of (298.15 to 323.15) K and at atmospheric pressure. Further, from experimental density values, coefficient of thermal expansivity and excess molar volume were also calculated. It was found that the heteroaromatic nitrogen/sulphur compounds and water are completely miscible in the [emim][EtSO4] ionic liquid. The surface tension values were found to increase while the refractive index decrease with increasing mole fraction of [emim][EtSO4]. On the other hand, dissimilar molecule such as water showed mobility of ions on mixing resulting in lower surface tension. The experimental values of surface tension increased in the order: thiophene > pyridine > pyrrole > indoline > quinoline and for refractive index: quinoline > indoline > pyrrole > pyridine > thiophene > water. It was found that the composition of [emim][EtSO4] has a greater influence than temperature in deciding the densities, surface, optical, and thermodynamic properties.Ramalingam Anantharaj and Tamal BanerjeeCopyright © 2011 Ramalingam Anantharaj and Tamal Banerjee. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2011/647937/Three power producing cycles have been so far known that include two isothermal processes, namely, Carnot, Stirling, and Ericsson. It is well known that the efficiency of the Carnot cycle represented by 1-TL/TH is independent of its working fluid. Using fundamental relationships between thermodynamic properties including Maxwell's relationships, this paper shows in a closed form that the Ericsson and the Stirling cycles also possess the Carnot efficiency irrespective of the nature of the working gas.Y. HaseliCopyright © 2011 Y. Haseli. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2011/945047/A problem on determining effective volumes for atoms and molecules becomes actual due to rapidly developing nanotechnologies. In the present study an exact expression for enthalpy of vaporization is obtained, from which an exact expression is derived for effective volumes of atoms and molecules, and under certain assumptions on the form of an atom (molecule) it is possible to find their linear dimensions. The accuracy is only determined by the accuracy of measurements of thermodynamic parameters at the critical point.A. A. SobkoCopyright © 2011 A. A. Sobko. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2011/251075/Phase behavior of systems composed by supercritical carbon dioxide and ethanol is of great interest, especially in the processes involving supercritical extraction in which ethanol is used as a cosolvent. The development of an apparatus, which is able to perform the measurements of vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE) at high pressure using a combination of the visual and the acoustic methods, was successful and was proven to be suited for determining the isothermal VLE data of this system. The acoustic method, based on the variation of the amplitude of an ultra-sound signal passing through a mixture during a phase transition, was applied to investigate the phase equilibria of the system carbon dioxide + ethanol at temperatures ranging from 298.2 K to 323.2 K and pressures from 3.0 MPa to 9.0 MPa. The VLE data were correlated with Peng-Robinson equation of state combined with two different mixing rules and the SAFT equations of state as well. The compositions calculated with the models are in good agreement with the experimental data for the isotherms evaluated.Ana Mehl, Fabio P. Nascimento, Pedro W. Falcão, Fernando L. P. Pessoa, and Lucio Cardozo-FilhoCopyright © 2011 Ana Mehl et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2011/464368/Photoacoustic (PA) sensor was designed and developed to evaluate thermal effusivity of Fe3O4 nanofluid. The PA sensor is based on open cell mode (OPC) to measure acoustic signals from low concentration of nanoparticulate suspensions in ethylene glycol (EG). Spherical Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) were obtained by chemical precipitation method in powder form. The obtained NPs were stabilized by acetylacetone (acac) in EG. Thermal conductivity estimation was carried out with the help of transient hot wire method. The developed PA sensor was calibrated by measuring thermal effusivity of standard samples. The acoustic signals of the PA experiments have been analyzed with a simple Rosencwaig-Gersho theoretical model.Vijay S. Raykar and Ashok K. SinghCopyright © 2011 Vijay S. Raykar and Ashok K. Singh. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2011/874979/The component chemical potentials in models of solution phases with a fixed number of sites can be evaluated easily when the Helmholtz energy is known as an analytical function of composition. In the case of ordered phases, however, the situation is less straightforward, because the Helmholtz energy is a functional involving internal order parameters. Because of this, the chemical potentials are usually obtained numerically from the calculated integral Helmholtz energy. In this paper, we show how the component chemical potentials can be obtained analytically in ordered phases via the use of virtual cluster chemical potentials. Some examples are given which illustrate the simplicity of the method.W. A. Oates, H. Wang, D. S. Xu, and R. YangCopyright © 2011 W. A. Oates et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2011/857061/The paper deals with the aerodynamic analysis of a manned braking system entering the Mars atmosphere with the aim to support planetary entry system design studies. The exploration vehicle is an axisymmetric blunt body close to the Apollo capsule. Several fully three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics analyses have been performed to address the capsule aerodynamic performance. To this end, a wide range of flow conditions including reacting and nonreacting flow, different angles of attack, and Mach numbers have been investigated and compared. Moreover, nonequilibrium effects on the flow field around the entry vehicle have also been investigated. Results show that real-gas effects, for all the angles of attack considered, increase both the aerodynamic drag and pitching moment whereas the lift is only slighted affected. Finally, results comparisons highlight that experimental and CFD aerodynamic findings available for the Apollo capsule in air adequately represent the static coefficients of the capsule in the Mars atmosphere.Giuseppe Pezzella and Antonio VivianiCopyright © 2011 Giuseppe Pezzella and Antonio Viviani. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2010/789262/The paper summarizes the knowledge concerning porous media combustion techniques as applied in engines. One of most important reasons of this review is to introduce this still not well known technology to researchers doing with internal combustion engine processes, thermal engines, reactor thermodynamics, combustion, and material science. The paper gives an overview of possible applications of a highly porous open cell structures to in-cylinder processes. This application means utilization of unique features of porous media for supporting engine processes, especially fuel distribution in space, vaporization, mixing with air, heat recuperation, ignition and combustion. There are three ways for applying porous medium technology to engines: support of individual processes, support of homogeneous combustion process (catalytic and non-catalytic) with temperature control, and utilization of the porous structure as a heat capacitor only. In the first type of application, the porous structure may be utilized for fuel vaporization and improved fuel distribution in space making the mixture more homogeneous in the combustion chamber. Extension of these processes to mixture formation and ignition inside a combustion reactor allows the realization of a homogeneous and a nearly zero emissions level combustion characterized by a homogeneous temperature field at reduced temperature level.Miroslaw WeclasCopyright © 2010 Miroslaw Weclas. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2011/940385/We derive the thermodynamic conditions necessary for two elastoplastic solid phases to coexist in equilibrium. Beyond temperature, velocity, and traction continuity, these conditions require continuity of a generalization of the specific Gibbs free energy. We express this quantity in the Eulerian frame as well as the Lagrangian frame. We also show that two approaches in deriving the equilibrium conditions, one on the continuum level and the other on the atomistic scale, yield the same results. Finally, we discuss two possible interpretations for the Gibbs free energy, which lead to distinct generalizations, except in the case of inviscid fluids, where they coincide.JeeYeon N. PlohrCopyright © 2011 JeeYeon N. Plohr. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2010/750675/This paper describes a solar absorption cooling installation located at the University of Zaragoza (Spain). The installation is based on the performance of an absorption chiller. The solar cooling system consists of 37,5 m2 of flat plate collector, a 4.5 kW, single-effect LiBr-H2O absorption chiller, and a dry cooling tower. The installation provides cooling to a gymnasium belonging to the sports center of the university. To carry out the installation analysis, the system was continuously monitored. In 2007, 2008 and 2009, several studies have been performed in order to analyze the full system operation. The measured data showed the strong influence of the cooling water temperature and the generator driving temperature on the COP. Due to the experimental evidence of the influence of the cooling water temperature, a new heat rejection system based on a geothermal heat sink has been installed and studied.Carlos Monné Bailo, Sergio Alonso Garcés, and Fernando Palacín ArizónCopyright © 2010 Carlos Monné Bailo et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2010/130692/The Meletis-Georgiou is a patented Vane Rotary Engine concept that incorporates separate compression-expansion chambers and a modified Otto (or Miller) cycle, characterized by (Exhaust) Gas Recirculation at elevated pressures. This is implemented by transferring part of the expansion chamber volume into the compression one through the coordinated action of two vane diaphragms. This results into a very high gas temperature at the end of the compression, something that permits autoignition under all conditions for a Homogeneous Compression Ignition (HCCI) version of the engine. The relevant parametric analysis of the ideal cycle shows that the new cycle gives ideal thermal efficiencies of the order of 60% to 70% under conditions corresponding to homogeneous compression engines but at reduced pressures when compared against the corresponding Miller cycle.Demos P. Georgiou, Nikolaos G. Theodoropoulos, and Kypros F. MilidonisCopyright © 2010 Demos P. Georgiou et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2010/142475/This paper provided important experimental PVT data of the Sudanese reservoir fluids. It includes composition analysis of 11 mixtures and about 148 PVT data points of constant mass expansion (CME) tests at pressures below the bubble point. The datasets are compared with eight equations of state (EOS), namely, Peng Robinson (PR), Soave-Redlich-Kwong (SRK), Lawal-Lake-Silberberg (LLS), Adachi-Lu-Sugie (ALS), Schmidt-Wenzel (SW), Patel-Teja (PT), Modified-Nasrifar-Moshfeghian (MNM), and Harmens-Knapp (HK). The results of comparison reveals that, with the exception of PR and ALS EOSs, all other EOSs yield consistently a higher average absolute percent deviation (AAPD) in the prediction of molar volume; it exceeds 20% by all mixtures. The grand average AAPD of all mixtures is 17 and 16 for PR and ALS, respectively. ALS is selected to represents the mixtures. It is modified by replacing the coefficient (Ωb1) of the parameter (b1) in the dominator of repulsive term by that of PR. This procedure enhanced the accuracy of ALS by 30 to 90% for individual mixtures and the grand average AAPD is significantly reduced from 16 to about 7.A. A. Rabah and S. A. MohamedCopyright © 2010 A. A. Rabah and S. A. Mohamed. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2009/313561/An exergetic optimization is developed to determine the optimal performance and design parameters of a solar photovoltaic (PV) array. A detailed energy and exergy analysis is carried out to evaluate the electrical performance, exergy destruction components, and exergy efficiency of a typical PV array. The exergy efficiency of a PV array obtained in this paper is a function of climatic, operating, and design parameters such as ambient temperature, solar radiation intensity, PV array temperature, overall heat loss coefficient, open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current, maximum power point voltage, maximum power point current, and PV array area. A computer simulation program is also developed to estimate the electrical and operating parameters of a PV array. The results of numerical simulation are in good agreement with the experimental measurements noted in the previous literature. Finally, exergetic optimization has been carried out under given climatic, operating, and design parameters. The optimized values of the PV array temperature, the PV array area, and the maximum exergy efficiency have been found. Parametric studies have been also carried out.Faramarz Sarhaddi, Said Farahat, Hossein Ajam, and Amin BehzadmehrCopyright © 2009 Faramarz Sarhaddi et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2009/823482/Optical fiber thermometry technology for high-temperature measurement is briefly reviewed in this paper. The principles, characteristics, recent progresses and advantages of the technology are described. Examples of using the technology are introduced. Many blackbody, infrared, and fluorescence optical thermometers are developed for practical applications.Y. B. Yu and W. K. ChowCopyright © 2009 Y. B. Yu and W. K. Chow. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2009/186723/The first and second laws of thermodynamic were applied to statistical databases on nutrition and human growth in order to estimate the entropy generation over the human lifespan. The calculations were performed for the cases of variation in the diet composition and calorie restriction diets; and results were compared to a base case in which lifespan entropy generation was found to be 11 404 kJ/K per kg of body mass, predicting a lifespan of 73.78 and 81.61 years for the average male and female individuals respectively. From the analysis of the results, it was found that changes of diet % of fat and carbohydrates do not have a significant impact on predicted lifespan, while the diet % of proteins has an important effect. Reduction of diet protein % to the minimum recommended in nutrition literature yields an average increase of 3.3 years on the predicted lifespan. Changes in the calorie content of the diet also have an important effect, yielding a % increase in lifespan equal or higher than the % reduction in the diet caloric content. This correlates well experimental data on small mammal and insects, in which lifespan has been increased by diet restriction.Carlos A. Silva and Kalyan AnnamalaiCopyright © 2009 Carlos A. Silva and Kalyan Annamalai. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2009/120481/In this communication, we review recent studies by these authors for modeling the LW-H equilibrium. With the aim of estimating the solubility of pure hydrocarbon hydrate former in pure water in equilibrium with gas hydrates, a thermodynamic model is introduced based on equality of water fugacity in the liquid water and hydrate phases. The solid solution theory of Van der Waals-Platteeuw is employed for calculating the fugacity of water in the hydrate phase. The Henry's law approach and the activity coefficient method are used to calculate the fugacities of the hydrocarbon hydrate former and water in the liquid water phase, respectively. The results of this model are successfully compared with some selected experimental data from the literature. A mathematical model based on feed-forward artificial neural network algorithm is then introduced to estimate the solubility of pure hydrocarbon hydrate former in pure water being in equilibrium with gas hydrates. Independent experimental data (not employed in training and testing steps) are used to examine the reliability of this algorithm successfully.Amir H. Mohammadi and Dominique RichonCopyright © 2009 Amir H. Mohammadi and Dominique Richon. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtd/2009/176495/A numerical study of the effect of slip flow irreversibility and axial conduction in microdevices with a conjugate heat transfer between unmixed streams is presented. The effects of axial conduction due to parallel flows for thermal management in energy systems are investigated. Silicon substrate containing rectangular microchannels is simulated using a finite volume, staggered coupling of the pressure-velocity fields. The entropy generation transport within the entire system is analyzed and coupled with the solution procedure. The effects of channel size perturbation, Reynolds number, and pressure ratios on the thermal performance and exergy destruction are presented. Comparative analysis of the axial conduction and flow irreversibility between parallel flow on thermal management is studied. A proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell model is used as a quality indicator to access the importance of the exergy-based design method.E. O. B. OgedengbeCopyright © 2009 E. O. B. Ogedengbe. All rights reserved.