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CLOSEST TO THE PIN
CTP Contest for Fall League 2022
The Casa De Campo Closest-to-the-Pin Contest will be held on Monday, September 12
and Tuesday, September 13 during the first week of leagues (the "Contest").
The winner of the Contest, and a guest of the winner's choosing, will receive the
following (the "Prize"):
Four (4) night stay in an Elite room at Casa De Campo Resort in La Romana, Dominican Republic (the "Resort")
One (1) golf cart for transportation within the Resort
Daily breakfast at the on-premises restaurant of Resort's choosing
$250 per person travel voucher, provided by Five Iron Golf
Two (2) rounds of golf at Teeth of the Dog
Two (2) rounds of golf at The Links
Two (2) rounds of golf at Dye Fore
Unlimited use of driving range
Unlimited use of the fitness center
28% of taxes & service charge included
Blackout dates: November 21-28, 2022 | December 20, 2022 – April 20, 2023
Retail value: [$4,500]
The Prize will be presented in certificate form to the winner of the Contest and must be redeemed within one (1) year after it is awarded, subject to the blackout dates listed above. If the Prize is not redeemed by such date, it shall automatically be void and of no further effect, and neither Five Iron Golf nor the Resort will have any obligation to provide the Prize, or any portion thereof. Any questions on prizing should be sent to leagues@fiveirongolf.com.
The Prize is awarded "as is". Any Prize depiction is for illustrative purposes only and shall not be relied upon. No part of the Prize includes alcoholic beverages. Prize is not transferable or redeemable for cash or credit. No substitution of Prize by winner is allowed, but Five Iron Golf reserves the right to substitute a prize of comparable or greater value at its sole discretion.
All expenses and costs incurred as a result of seeking, winning, and/or making use of a Prize are the sole responsibility of winner. Any expense or cost not expressly stated in the description of the Prize set forth above is the sole responsibility of winner. All federal, state, and local taxes, fees, and surcharges on any Prize are the sole responsibility of winner.
Participation in the Contest and acceptance of Prize constitute participant's permission for Five Iron Golf or its agents to photograph, film, and record each player and to use his/her name, address (city and state), likeness, photograph, voice, biographical information, and/or any statements made by each player regarding the Contest for purposes of trade, publicity, or promotion without notice or additional compensation, except where prohibited by law. By participating and/or accepting a prize, entrants, and winners, agree to release and
hold harmless Five Iron Golf and its respective parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates, partners, representatives, agents, successors, assigns, employees, officers, and directors (collectively, "Released Parties") from any and all liability for loss, harm, damage, injury, cost, or expense whatsoever, including, without limitation, property damage, personal injury, and/or death that may occur in connection with, preparation for, travel to, or participation in the Contest, or participation in, possession, acceptance, and/or use or misuse of the Prize or participation in any Contest-related activity, including, but not limited to, any claims based on publicity rights, defamation or invasion of privacy, and merchandise delivery. Five Iron Golf shall not be responsible for any cancellations, delays, diversions, substitutions, or omissions whatsoever by any other persons providing any services to winner, including any results thereof, such as changes in services or location necessitated by same. Five Iron Golf is not responsible if the Prize cannot be awarded due to acts of God, acts of war, natural disasters, weather, or acts of terrorism. Five Iron Golf shall not be liable for any loss or damage to personal belongings.
Eligibility. To be eligible to participate in the Contest, each player must:
Sign up for the Five Iron Golf Fall League on or before the start of Week 1 (either as a Free Agent or a league team member)
Pay league dues in full (Free Agent league dues or team dues, as applicable) on or before the start of Week 1
Follow @fiveirongolf on Instagram
Have a valid Trackman account (this can be created on the day the Contest is held, please ask a Five Iron Golf staff member for additional details on how to create a Trackman account)
Each eligible player will receive one (1) tee shot at the 5th hole of the Teeth of the Dog course
Men will tee off from the Dorado tees
Ladies will tee off from the Verde tees
The winner of the Prize is the player who hits his/her tee shot closest to the pin across ALL participating Five Iron Golf locations
For the avoidance of doubt, the Contest is not limited to the player's specific location
In the result of a tie for closest to the pin, each player will tee off again in a sudden death elimination. The winner is the player who hits his/her tee shot closest to the pin in the sudden death elimination round.
How do I participate in the Contest?
See above for eligibility requirements
The Contest will be held on one simulator during Week 1. Each eligible player must report to that simulator either before or after their scheduled Week 1 tee time. Further instructions will be provided by each location's league coordinator
prior to Week 1.
National Championship Grand Prize
Five Iron Golf Fall League Grand Prize
Each player (team of four) of the national championship winning team of the Fall 2022 Five Iron Golf League will receive the following (the "Grand Prize"):
Four (4) night stay in two (2) Elite rooms (two players per room) at Casa De Campo Resort in La Romana, Dominican Republic (the "Resort")
Retail value: [ $4500]
The Grand Prize will be presented in certificate form to the national championship winning team winner and must be redeemed within one (1) year after it is awarded, subject to the blackout dates listed above. If the Grand Prize is not redeemed by such date, it shall automatically be void and of no further effect, and neither Five Iron Golf nor the Resort will have any obligation to provide the Grand Prize, or any portion thereof. The Grand Prize is for four (4) team players only. Any questions on prizing should be sent to leagues@fiveirongolf.com.
The Grand Prize is awarded "as is". Any Grand Prize depiction is for illustrative purposes only and shall not be relied upon. No part of the Grand Prize includes alcoholic beverages. Grand Prize is not transferable or redeemable for cash or credit. No substitution of Grand Prize by winner is allowed, but Five Iron Golf reserves the right to substitute a prize of comparable or greater value at its sole discretion.
All expenses and costs incurred as a result of seeking, winning, and/or making use of a Grand Prize are the sole responsibility of winner. Any expense or cost not expressly stated in the description of the Grand Prize set forth above is the sole responsibility of winner. All federal, state, and local taxes, fees, and surcharges on any Grand Prize are the sole responsibility of winner.
Participation in the Contest and acceptance of Grand Prize constitute participant's permission for Five Iron Golf or its agents to photograph, film, and record each player and to use his/her name, address (city and state), likeness, photograph, voice, biographical information, and/or any statements made by each player regarding the Contest for purposes of trade, publicity, or promotion without notice or additional compensation, except where prohibited by law.
By participating and/or accepting a prize, entrants, and winners, agree to release and hold harmless Five Iron Golf and its respective parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates, partners, representatives, agents, successors, assigns, employees, officers, and directors (collectively, "Released Parties") from any and all liability for loss, harm, damage, injury, cost, or expense whatsoever, including, without limitation, property damage, personal injury, and/or death that may occur in connection with, preparation for, travel to, or participation in the Contest, or participation in, possession, acceptance, and/or use or misuse of the Grand Prize or participation in any Contest-related activity, including, but not limited to, any claims based on publicity rights, defamation or invasion of privacy, and merchandise delivery. Five Iron Golf shall not be responsible for any cancellations, delays, diversions, substitutions, or omissions whatsoever by any other persons providing any services to winner, including any results thereof, such as changes in services or location necessitated by same. Five Iron Golf is not responsible if the Grand Prize cannot be awarded due to acts of God, acts of war, natural disasters, weather, or acts of terrorism. Five Iron Golf shall not be liable for any loss or damage to personal belongings.
How do I get to the national championship?
After the regular season ends, the top six (6) teams at each participating Five Iron Golf location will compete in the First Flight Playoffs
The First Flight Playoffs is a bracket-style single elimination playoff, where teams earn seeds according to leaderboard status and play head-to-head matchups until a winner is decided
Each winner of the First Flight Playoffs will advance to the national championship
Additionally, the top three (3) teams on the Full Swing and Trackman national leaderboards at the end of the regular season (total of six (6) teams) will automatically advance to the national championship, regardless of those teams' performance in the First Flight Playoffs.
When and where is the national championship?
The national championship will take place on Tuesday, November 1, 2022 at 7:00pm EST at each participating Five Iron Golf location
If a team cannot attend the national championship held on November 1, 2022, they may play their national championship round on Monday, October 31, 2022.
What is the format of the national championship?
The national championship is 9 holes played in the 3-ball best ball format
What happens if there is a tie in the national championship?
Ties are broken by a sudden death playoff, where teams will go back to the first hole that they played, and continue to play until a team an aggregate low score on a hole has been recorded


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Technically, the DVD is very well presented. The video and audio are high quality, and the menu is easy to use - you can skip to any area of interest with the press of a button on your remote control. Floyd's presentation style is clear and quite accessible.
"Master Class Technique Briefing #1, Natural Metal Finishes Featuring Alclad II" is an excellent description of the processes required to obtain a first-class natural metal finish on your models, starting at cutting the parts from the sprues, right up to decals and weathering.
Whether you are new to the hobby, or have a specific requirements for natural metal finishes, or are interested in seeing a fellow modeller at work, this is a worthwhile resource to have in your modelling library.
Thanks to Master Class Model Building Videos for the review sample.


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text:
An octave band is a frequency band that spans one octave (). In this context an octave can be a factor of 2 or a factor of 100.3. 2/1 = 1200 cents ≈ 10.

Fractional octave bands such as  or  of an octave are widely used in engineering acoustics.

Analyzing a source on a frequency by frequency basis is possible but time-consuming. The whole frequency range is divided into sets of frequencies called bands. Each band covers a specific range of frequencies. For this reason, a scale of octave bands and one-third octave bands has been developed. A band is said to be an octave in width when the upper band frequency is twice the lower band frequency. A one-third octave band is defined as a frequency band whose upper band-edge frequency (f2) is the lower band frequency (f1) times the cube root of two.

Octave bands

Calculation
If  is the center frequency of an octave band, one can compute the octave band boundaries as

,

where  is the lower frequency boundary and  the upper one.

Naming

One-third octave bands

Base 2 calculation

%% Calculate Third Octave Bands (base 2) in Matlab
fcentre  = 10^3 * (2 .^ ([-18:13]/3))
fd = 2^(1/6);
fupper = fcentre * fd
flower = fcentre / fd

Base 10 calculation

%% Calculate Third Octave Bands (base 10) in Matlab
fcentre = 10.^(0.1.*[12:43])
fd = 10^0.05;
fupper = fcentre * fd
flower = fcentre / fd

Naming

See also
Octave
Octave (electronics)

References

Acoustics

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Album of the Day 8/3/11
Every day, our 1000 best albums of all time countdown continues all the way to #1. Wednesday's album is #545:
Cocktail Angst – Our Big Top Parade
Like Richard Cheese, New York band Cocktail Angst made fun of lounge music, but much more subtly. Frontwoman Toby Williams, keyboardist Jon Dryden, vibraphonist Tom Beckham, bassist Tim Luntzel and drummer John Mettam gave their songs period-perfect torchy 1950s latin jazz arrangements, then gently and expertly mocked them. This 2001 release is the better (or at least longer) of their two often pricelessly funny albums, much of it foreshadowing the considerably darker direction Beckham would take as a solo artist. It's got the title track's seedy circus milieu; the absolutely silly, over-the-top, Pineapples, a spoof of 50s "exotica;" Samba de Angst, a cynical look through the eyes of a gold-digging stripper; and Mindless, which reminds that the New York City subway was just as bad fifteen years ago as it is now. Last Tango in Vegas is actually a creepy blues lamenting the Disneyfication of the city: "Be wary of the great American dream/The Elk's Club bids you all a good night." With its big Henry Mancini-esque crescendos, Kama Sutra is even creepier. There's also Bates Motel, a twisted noir vacation scenario and the blithe yet bitter Case of Cheap Goodnight along with a John Denver cover which is as hideously awful as the original, probably for a reason. Mysteriously AWOL from the usual sources for free music, it's still available from cdbaby.
August 3, 2011 Posted by delarue | jazz, lists, Music, music, concert	| best albums, best albums all time, best albums alltime, best albums ever, best albums list, best albums lucid culture, best jazz albums all time, best jazz albums alltime, best jazz albums ever, best music, best music ever, best obscure albums, best obscure albums all time, best obscure albums alltime, best obscure albums ever, best underrated albums, cocktail angst, exotica, faux jazz, greatest albums all time, greatest albums alltime, greatest albums ever, greatest jazz albums all time, greatest jazz albums alltime, greatest jazz albums ever, greatest obscure albums, john mettam, jon dryden, lounge jazz, most underrated albums, most underrated albums all time, Music, punk jazz, tim luntzel, toby williams, tom beckham, top albums all time, top albums alltime, top albums ever | Leave a comment
Dina Rudeen's Common Splendor is Uncommonly Splendid
Dina Rudeen is the missing link between Neko Case and Eartha Kitt. The way she slides up to a high note and then nails it triumphantly will give you shivers. Her songs draw you in, make you listen: they aren't wordy or packed with innumerable chord changes, but they pack a wallop. With just a short verse and a catchy tune, Rudeen will paint a picture and then embellish it while the initial impact is still sinking in. Musically, she reaches back to the magical moment in the late 60s and early 70s when soul music collided with psychedelic rock; lyrically, she uses the metaphorically loaded, witty vernacular of the blues as a foundation for her own terse, literate style. Some of the songs on her new album The Common Splendor sound like what Dylan's Blood on the Tracks could have been if he'd had a good band behind him; the rest runs the gamut from lush, nocturnal oldschool soul ballads, to jaunty, upbeat, Americana rock. Behind Rudeen's nuanced vocals, Gary Langol plays keyboards and stringed instruments along with Tim Bright on electric guitars, Tim Luntzel on bass, Konrad Meissner on drums, Jordan MacLean on trumpet, the ubiquitously good Doug Wieselman on baritone sax and clarinet, Lawrence Zoernig on cello, bells and bowls, Smoota's Dave Smith on trombone, Lars Jacobsen on tenor sax and Jake Engel of Lenny Molotov's band on blues harp. The arrangements are exquisite, with tersely interwoven guitar and keyboard lines, and horn charts that punch in and then disappear, only to jump back in on a crescendo. This also happens to be the best-produced album of the year: it sounds like a vinyl record.
The opening track, Hittin' the Town is a sly, ultimately triumphant tune about conquering inner demons, driven by a defiant horn chart over a vintage 50s Howlin Wolf shuffle beat:
I hit a dry spell
I hit a low note
I hit the deck
But missed the boat
I hit the top, cracked the jewel in my crown
When it hit me like a ton of bricks that's when I hit the ground
But now I'm just hitting the town
The second cut, Steady the Plow slinks along on a low key gospel/blues shuffle, Rudeen's sultry contralto contrasting with layers of reverberating lapsteel, piano and dobro moving through the mix – psychedelic Americana, 2011 style. Safe with Me, a southern soul tune, wouldn't have been out of place in the Bettye Swann songbook circa 1967. The lush, gorgeously bittersweet, Rachelle Garniez-esque Yvette eulogizes a teenage party pal who died before her time, maybe because she pushed herself a little too hard (Rudeen doesn't say, an example of how the ellipses here speak as loudly as the words). Hold Up the Night succinctly captures the "beautiful, unfolding sight" of a gritty wee hours street scene; Blue Bird, a bucolic tribute to the original songbird – or one of them – has more of Langol's sweet steel work. And Prodigal One, another requiem, vividly memorializes a crazy neighborhood character who finally got on the Night Train and took it express all the way to the end.
Not everything here is quiet and pensive. There's also some upbeat retro rock here, including the sultry Cadillac of Love and a couple of rockabilly numbers: Repeat Offender, with its Sun Records noir vibe, and Gray Pompadour, a tribute to an old guy who just won't quit. There's also the unselfconsciously joyous closing singalong, On My Way Back Home, namechecking a characteristically eclectic list of influences: Bowie, Elvis, the Grateful Dead, among others. Count this among one of the best releases of 2011 in any style of music. Watch this space for upcoming NYC live dates.
April 6, 2011 Posted by delarue | Music, music, concert, review, Reviews, rock music, soul music	| 60s rock, album review, americana rock, blues, blues music, blues-rock, classic soul, dave smith trombone, dina rudeen, dina rudeen common splendor review, dina rudeen review, dina rudeen the common splendor, doug wieselman, eartha kitt, gary langol, howlin wolf, Jake Engel, konrad meissner, lawrence zoernig, lenny molotov, Music, music review, neko case, rachelle garniez, retro rock, sixties rock, soul music, soul pop, soul-rock, southern soul, tim bright guitar, tim luntzel | 1 Comment
Carol Lipnik's M.O.T.H. Brings up the Lights
Gorgeously orchestrated, warm and often sultry, shapeshifting chanteuse Carol Lipnik's latest album M.O.T.H. (meaning Matters of the Heart) is an unexpected treat from someone who's made her name as a purveyor of brilliantly surreal, carnivalesque songs. As you would expect, those songs frequently create an atmosphere of menace; here, that menace still looms in places, but from a considerable distance. Love or hope are always portrayed as part of a dialectic with pain on the other end, especially on a handful of settings of Rumi poems. Behind Lipnik, this version of Spookarama includes her longtime collaborator, dark jazz piano genius Dred Scott (who also contributes other keys, bass, drums and guitar on one track) along with Jacob Lawson on violin, Tim Luntzel on bass and Jim Campilongo guesting on guitar on one track.
It opens on a bouncy, playfully seductive note with Firefly: "In my dream world, you're my temple." It goes from playful to dark and back again and then ends cold. With its dark tango pulse, Undine Unwitted is characteristically surreal – "When I was a mermaid, I tried to pull you underwater, but you became the water" – and grows to a lush grandeur. The following track, told from the point of view of the Creature from the Black Lagoon, offers a perspective that's genuinely poignant rather than camp, an outsider anthem if there ever was one and a showcase for the upper registers of Lipnik's breathtaking four-octave range.
With the first of the Rumi lyrics, Poison Flower sets uneasily psychedelic layers of vocals over a wary violin waltz, a vivid portrayal of temptation and desire. The long, psychedelic title track alternates hypnotic ambience with a big, stomping, hard-rocking chorus; the following Rumi-themed number sways with echoes of 60s psychedelic folk-rock. Based on a Laura Gilpin poem, The Two Headed Calf presents another sympathetic view of a freak: he may be facing imminent death and then possibly several posthumous lifetimes in a museum, but for now he's looking at the stars, and he sees twice as many as we do. Michael Hurley's Werewolf (famously covered by Cat Power) sticks closer to the original, done with a menacing sway and some deliciously noir, twangy Campilongo guitar. Spirits Be Kind to Me, written by Tom Ward, is darkly bouncing and stagy: Lipnik keeps the drama understated, making it more of an invocation than a plea. The album winds up on a gracefully majestic note with Love Dogs, based on yet another Rumi poem: "Your pure sadness that longs for love is the secret cup." Count this among the most stunning releases of 2011. Lipnik plays a weeklong stand at PS 122 from April 15 through the 22nd with another extraordinary singer, John Kelly: their new collaboration explores the visions of a critically injured trapeze artist who in order to escape his pain imagines himself entering the world of Caravaggio's paintings.
March 15, 2011 Posted by delarue | Music, music, concert, review, Reviews, rock music	| album review, art-rock, carol lipnik, carol lipnik and spookarama, carol lipnik m.o.t.h., carol lipnik m.o.t.h. review, carol lipnik moth review, cd review, chamber pop, dark rock, dred scott piano, jacob lawson violin, jim campilongo, Music, music review, noir music, orchestrated rock, pop music, rock music, rumi, rumi songs, tim luntzel | Leave a comment
CD Review: Jenny Scheinman – Crossing the Field
A delightful, bracing cd for cool autumn nights when it just feels so good to be alive. Scheinman may be best known as a jazz player and composer, but this cd is a multistylistic smorgasbord of instrumentals with elements of classical, rock, film soundtracks and ragtime as well. The band here is is an all-star cast of like-minded envelope-pushing types: Ron Miles on cornet; Doug Wieselman on clarinet; a dream-team rhythm section of Tim Luntzel on bass and Kenny Wollesen on drums; Jason Moran on piano; Bill Frisell on guitar and many string players including the members of the ambitious quartet Brooklyn Rider. Scheinman is a master of many moods, and she packs a bunch in here. This may be a fun album at heart, but there's an awfully lot going on and it's all good.
The album opens with Born Into This, airy and ambient with shades of Jean-Luc Ponty but stark and somewhat rustic, absent any 70s fusion clichés. It builds to a mighty crescendo at the end. I Heart Eye Patch is breezy and playful over a tongue-in-cheek vaudeville beat with a characteristically jaunty yet comfortable Frisell solo. An upbeat piano intro kicks off the aptly titled That's Delight, eventually joined by the violin. Ana Eco begins apprehensive and ethereal and grows simply sad and wary – it's a beautiful song.
A showcase for Moran, Hard Sole Shoe bounces along on an almost martial groove spiked with guitar accents until midway through when the horns take over for the piano and the baton is passed to Wieselman…and suddenly it's floating along comfortably among the clouds. Einsamaller could be a Shostakovich horror movie score, atmospheric layers of strings building ominously until they're joined by the horns. It's a two-part piece, the second opening on a lighter note but getting dark quickly. The not-quite Awful Sad is a pensive ragtime song for violin and piano; Processional, by contrast, is very sad, a slow piano-and-guitar ballad that gets eerier as it goes along, Frisell adding his trademark, bell-like reverb guitar
The most cinematic of the cuts here, The Careeners is a boisterous chase sequence. Three Bits And A Horse is brief and somewhat skeletal, its cornet intro building as Frisell kicks around the melody. A Peter Tosh-inflected melody to a staggered reggae beat with some intriguing tempo shifts, Song For Sidiki sends Scheinman flying over the guitar and rhythm section. Then Frisell and the cornet take over. The cd concludes with the thoughtful, ambient Ripples In The Aquifer and the warm open-skies tune Old Brooklyn. This is foremost a treat for jazz fans, but lush with melody that will get pretty much anybody humming along. One of the best albums of 2008, no question. Scheinman's debut vocal cd, a somewhat rustic collection of Americana songs reviewed here recently, is also worth checking out. The Jenny Scheinman Quartet (featuring Moran, Greg Cohen and Rudy Royston) begins a six-night stand at the Village Vanguard on Oct 28.
October 20, 2008 Posted by delarue | Music, Reviews	| bill frisell, brooklyn rider, crossing the field, doug wieselman, jason moran, jazz, jenny scheinman, kenny wollesen, Music, ron miles, tim luntzel | Leave a comment
Concert Review: Matt Munisteri's Brock Mumford at Pier One, NYC 7/22/07
Nothing was going to ruin this evening. Not the horrible train ride that unexpectedly lasted almost as long as the band's first set. Not the small committee of yuppie protozoa in training pants, running around screaming while the band played. Not the yuppie woman (or guy) upwind, drenched in asphyxiating cardamom cologne. Not the gay couple with the six-inch mutt or marsupial or whatever it was that wouldn't stop yapping. Not the loud woman and her even louder foreign friend seated to the rear, discussing the minutiae of the new mortgage she hoped to qualify for (at that price, honey, you're being screwed). It was 70 degrees with a steady breeze and no humidity, the sky grey, streaked with radiant pink as dusk slowly settled in. If anyone is alive to read this 20 years from now, let it be known there was such an unthinkably beautiful late afternoon in Manhattan in the dead of July, 2007. And Matt Munisteri's Brock Mumford was playing.
Munisteri is an A-list jazz guitarist with a list of A-list credits a mile long. This unit, which criminally only gets together a couple of times a year these days, is his chance to show off his songwriting chops. Munisteri is the wickedly literate jazzcat auteur that Elvis Costello's always wanted to be, as witty and subtle a wordsmith as a tunesmith. And Will Friedwald, author of the pretty definitive book Jazz Singing is in Munisteri's corner as well: in his world, wit and subtlety extend to vocals as well. Tonight the supporting cast included his usual sparring partners, the amazingly inventive Will Holshouser (who took most of the solos) on accordion, and Jon Kellso on trumpet, plus excellent upright bassist Tim Luntzel.
They ended their first set with the smoothly evocative When We're Alone: "This song was meant to be played outdoors, the kind of thing I can usually only do at a cheeseball wedding," Munisteri told the crowd, and in this upper Westside Woody Allen world of penthouse sophistication, real or imagined, it was an apt choice.
After a short break, they began their second set with the old standard Lazybones, Munisteri solo on guitar, then rejoined by the band on Honey on the Moon, featuring a sweet, bluesy Holshouser solo. Munisteri dedicated the next song to those who'd been displaced by luxury highrises, and anyone building luxury highrises as well. He looked out at the crowd, and the apartment complex at 68th St. towering overhead: "I see Trump," and then pointing at the rusting hulk of an elevator at the adjacent pier, "And I see dump. I don't know which I like more…actually as a sixth-generation Brooklynite I do know which I like more and I'm not telling you…since Trump may be part of the reason we're here tonight." Then they launched into his original composition This Funny World: "This funny world is making fun of you," which as Munisteri pointed out could cut any number of ways.
Next, they did the playful, amusing Picciaridu, a track from Brock Mumford's album, about a young Italian girl on the Lower East Side just about to hit puberty and discover what hellraising is all about. On the following tune, How Can You Face Me Now Munisteri and Kellso carried on a jaunty guitar/trumpet conversation for what sounded like a whole verse before the band kicked in. Let's Do Something Bad, which is as close to a signature song as Munisteri has, was perfect: it's a wickedly literate, tongue-in-cheek number about cheating. Playing with a mute, Kellso took an aptly understated, smoothly seductive solo to match the lyrics.
Finally, on the next-to-last song of the night, Munisteri took an all-too-brief, soulful guitar solo: it's ironic that his own project gives him less of a chance to show off his monster chops than the other units he plays with (notably Rachelle Garniez' brilliant band). But this one's all about the songwriting, which is a treat in itself. They closed with the obscure Bing Crosby song T'ain't So: Holshouser took a long solo and built to a darkly bluesy crescendo while Munisteri shadowed him, ominously voicing the chorus chord changes low on the fretboard. It says something about this band that they could find such rich, troubling complexity in an otherwise long-forgotten old pop song.
By the way, in case you're wondering what the band name may mean, Brock Mumford is the man widely credited for being the first jazz guitarist.
July 23, 2007 Posted by delarue | concert, Live Events, Music, music, concert, New York City, review, Reviews	| accordion jazz, acordion music, bing crosby, brock mumford, concert pier one, concert pier one nyc, elvis costello, guitar jazz, jazz, jazz band, jazz music, jazz singer, jazz singing, jon kellso, jon kellso trumpet, jon-erik kellso, Matt Munisteri, matt munisteri brock mumford, musette, rachelle garniez, tim luntzel, vocal jazz, will friedwald jazz singing, will frieldwald, Will Holshouser | 2 Comments

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Croatian culture today
'Croatia: Full of Life' is the latest marketing slogan drummed up by the Med destination of the moment. It's also full of new festivals, bistro culture and 'Game Of Thrones' tours. Jonathan Bousfield appraises the EU's newest member
Jonathan Bousfield
Croatia may no longer be the new kid on the block as far as Mediterranean tourism is concerned, but it still offers the allure of fresh discoveries. Visitors who already know about Dubrovnik are beginning to grasp why they need to spend more time exploring Pelješac and Korčula; press stories about suave hedonism of Hvar have morphed gently into press stories about the reinvigorating authenticity of the same island. And people who visited Croatian capital Zagreb ten years ago are beginning to realise that the Zagreb of today is a different city entirely.
Croatia's ongoing status as a perception-challenging destination might be one reason why the Croatian National Tourist Association chose 2015 as the right time to replace its 15-year-old slogan, 'The Mediterranean As It Once Was' with the new motto, 'Croatia: Full of Life'. Local wags were quick to subject the new slogan to a 'my-child-could-have-thought-that-up' level of derision, although professionals were equally fast in defending the choice as the most versatile, open-ended and appropriate solution available. The old slogan was very successful in drawing attention to Croatian heritage and unspoiled nature, but probably meant little to a new generation of tourists more interested in music festivals, wine bars, sleek hotels and Adriatic cool.
And when Croatia is concerned, cool is far from being an overused word. The Croatian music-festival boom shows no signs of letting up; the legendary, genre-defining Garden Festival may well be packing away its turntables this year as it holds its tenth and final edition – but the Garden site in Tisno will continue to host a summer-long cavalcade of music-driven events. The other big-name festivals (Hideout at Zrće; or Outlook near Pula) continue to go from strength to strength, and new events are being added to the calendar every year.
The idea of a country that's creatively on the rise spreads to other spheres of culture too: people have been going on about Croatian design for ages and it finally looks as if there are enough products in the shops to justify the hype. The newly opened Croatian Design Superstore in Zagreb gathers together pretty much everything you might want to buy under one roof – it's only disadvantage being that you will need to head inland to Zagreb in order to visit it.
Indeed it is Zagreb, long overlooked by tourists due to its landlocked position, which is increasingly brushing off its cloak of invisibility to reveal itself as Croatia's true centre of innovation and new trends. A new raft of festivals (Gourmingle, The Courtyards, and an updated, ultra-chic Advent season) have recast the city as a place of all-year outdoor happenings rather than museum visits and sightseeing trails. A new breed of bistros and café-bars has placed increased emphasis on quality local ingredients and global culinary ingenuity. The emergence of a craft-beer scene is the latest twist in the developing story of the city's frolicsome nightlife.
The other runaway success story of recent years is Split, where bistro culture has also gone ballistic but this time with more Mediterranean sleight of hand – think more seafood, more Adriatic olive oil, and more boutique wines from vineyards that are just a boat ride away. Split's Poljud stadium has hosted the Ultra Festival since 2013, a hugely popular event that brings thousands of techno fans to the city for one mad weekend in July. However most summer-round visitors to Split are here for different reasons: the ancient monuments, the medieval alleyways, the legendary vivacity of the locals – and more recently, sightings of a certain Princess Daenerys from the TV smash 'Game Of Thrones' in the basement of the Diocletian's Palace.
Zadar is another centuries-old city that continues to retune its historical appeal with chic urban improvements. The wonderful Sea Organ and Greetings to the Sun installations on the waterfront have become symbols of Croatia's contemporary identity. Trg pet bunara, 'Five Wells Square', is the latest old-town space to be treated to a thorough restoration.
And the Istrian port of Pula is increasingly making international waves on account of its Lighting Giants, the illuminated shipyard cranes lit up by artist Dean Škira. First switched on in 2014, the Giants look set to become a permanent feature. Indeed Croatia is increasingly home to the kind of iconic urban landmarks that would make many other Central European nations blush with envy: the Hotel Lone in Rovinj, the Mosque & Islamic Centre in Rijeka, the Museum of Evolution in Krapina… The country is increasingly looking like the Mediterranean as it might be rather than the Mediterranean as it once was.
Whatever PR strategies are dreamt up by the tourist authorities they still can't match the free publicity generated by 'Game Of Thrones', the fantasy phenomenon that, having featured Dubrovnik as a location for the last four seasons, has now extended operations up the coast to film in Split and Šibenik as well. The media rollercoaster that surrounds the series has been gathering momentum with the screening of each season – 2015 looks like being the year when its effect will truly be felt on tourism throughout Dalmatia.
All of which is more good news for a tourist industry that, in 2014, finally overtook the visitor numbers recorded in the pre-recession summer of 2007. Despite rising seasonal revenues however, many branches of the Croatian economy still show signs of the post-recession blues. Upcoming parliamentary elections are due at some stage in 2015 although a precise date has not been fixed. Whoever wins will have a tough job on their hands. The presidential elections of December 2014 saw a shock defeat for the popular left-of-centre lawyer and composer Ivo Josipović, losing by a single percentage point to conservative rival Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović.
The intense election race and campaign produced huge public interest and a healthy turnout, demonstrating that Croatian democracy was in more robust shape than many people thought. Grabar-Kitarović, whose previous jobs include Croatian Ambassador to the USA, Croatian Foreign Minister and Assistant Secretary-General at NATO, is a widely known and trusted figure on the international stage.
The main challenge for the future is whether Croatia can retain its reputation as one of the cleanest, most unspoiled destinations in the Mediterranean. In December 2014, the Croatian government handed out licences to ten companies to start prospecting for oil and gas in the Adriatic Sea. While raising the possibility of Croatia becoming a major European energy supplier, it also drew a storm of protest from locals. The Croatian Adriatic is famous for being one of the cleanest seas in Europe, and the threat of even minor environmental pollution is a major worry.
Writing from the perspective of 2015 the Adriatic oil rush still looks a long way off, if indeed it ever happens at all. In the meantime, Croatia will continue to display its shape-shifting ability to mix uncomplicated authenticity with innovation and surprise.
Time Out Croatia
Time Out Global


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Q: BitmapFactory.decodeFile() returns null I am creating an Android app in which you  copy an image from location x to location y. After the copying is complete I would like to see the picture in a ImageView.
I know the images location, but no matter what I try I can't create a bitmap object of it.
The line which are causing my problems is this:
BitmapFactory.decodeFile(dir+s);

dir = getCacheDir().getAbsolutePath()+"/images/";
s = file name (eg. 1275123123.jpg)
If I create a File object with the same path, and call f.isFile(), it returns true.
Opening the image in either android or windows are not a problem.

A: Didn't you forget to add SD card access permissions READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE and/or WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE ?

A: I had a similar problem and what eventually solved it was creating FileInputStream(...) and decoding the stream. This is the code I used, I changed it to suite your case:
File location = new File(Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory().getAbsolutePath()+ "/images");
File dest = new File(location, fileName + ".JPG");
FileInputStream fis;
fis = new FileInputStream(dest);
Bitmap img = BitmapFactory.decodeStream(fis);

A: You have to add
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />

permissions to you manifest.
And please don't forget to request runtime permission from user.

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Floris van Merode was zoon van Bernard van Merode en Catharina van Brederode en werd geboren omstreeks 1600.

In 1620 trouwde hij met Margaretha van Gendt. Hij was korte tijd, namelijk omstreeks 1640, heer van Asten. Hij was echter een militair die nooit in Asten kon zijn. Niet lang nadat Johan de Salm van Malgré gesneuveld was, verliet hij de krijgsdienst en kwam hij op het kasteel wonen. Zijn gezondheid was echter verzwakt en hij stierf niet lang daarna.

Van hem zijn twee bastaarddochters bekend: Maria en Florentia. De laatste ging als burgeres in Asten wonen.

Heer van Asten
Huis Merode
Merode, Fl


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Journal of Catalysts
Journal of Catalysts/
AbstractIntroductionMaterials and MethodsResults and DiscussionConclusionsAcknowledgmentsReferencesCopyrightRelated Articles
Silk-Cocoon Matrix Immobilized Lipase Catalyzed Transesterification of Sunflower Oil for Production of Biodiesel
Sushovan Chatterjee,1Dipti Yadav,2Lepakshi Barbora,2Pinakeswar Mahanta,3and Pranab Goswami4
Academic Editor: Vijay Bokade
Received23 Sept 2013
Revised02 Jan 2014
Accepted03 Jan 2014
Published10 Feb 2014
Biodiesel from sunflower oil using lipase chemically immobilized on silk-cocoon matrix in a packed-bed bioreactor was investigated. The immobilization was demonstrated by field-emission scanning electron microscopy and activity study. The lipase loading was 738.74 U (~0.01 g lipase powder)/g-lipase-immobilized matrix. The (Michaelis-Menten constant) of the free and the immobilized lipase was 451.26 μM and 257.26 μM, respectively. Low value of the immobilized lipase is attributed to the hydrophobic nature of the matrix that facilitated the substrate diffusion to the enzyme surface. The biodiesel yield of 81.62% was obtained at 48 hours reaction time, 6 : 1 methanol : oil ratio (v/v), and 30°C. The immobilized lipase showed high operational stability at 30°C. The substrate conversion was only marginally decreased till third cycle (each of 48 hours duration) of the reaction since less than even 5% of the original activity was decreased in each of the second and third cycle. The findings demonstrated the potential of the silk-cocoon as lipase immobilization matrix for industrial production of biodiesel.
Lipase catalyzed transesterification has received renewed interest over the conventional transesterification processes in recent era because of room temperature reaction condition, reuse of catalysts, ability to esterify both glycerides and free fatty acids in single step, and production of glycerol stream with minimal water content and little or no inorganic material [1]. However, the cost of the lipase is one of the major obstacles in developing lipase-based process for the commercial applications. Application of immobilized lipase in biocatalytic processes substantially averts the cost factor, thus contributing to the economic viability of the process for commercial applications [2]. The immobilization, however, should not affect the functional activity and stability of the lipase being used as catalyst for the transesterification reaction. The role of the immobilizing support material is therefore critical for the success of the transesterification process. Application of various lipase immobilization support matrices for biodiesel production has been reported with mixed results [3, 4]. Recently, much attention has been paid to utilize biocompatible materials for the immobilization of lipase to overcome the loss of lipase stability commonly occurred due to the immobilization [5, 6]. Another equally important factor that governs the functional activity and stability of the immobilized lipase is the kind of immobilizations. Different approaches such as, chemical cross-linking [7], encapsulation [8], and adsorption [9] have been utilized for immobilization of lipase on various support systems for the transesterification reaction. The success of such approaches, however, could not be convincingly generalized so far and showed variation across enzymes of different sources [10–15]. The additional important issue that needs to be considered for developing the biocatalytic process is an efficient bioreactor for facilitating the reaction to achieve high product yield. Different bioreactors for the lipase catalyzed transesterification of vegetable oil for the production of biodiesel have been reported such as, biphasic bioreactor [16], membrane bioreactor [17], packed-bed bioreactor [18], fluidized bed bioreactor [19], and stirrer tank bioreactor [20]. In this investigation we used silk cocoon as lipase immobilization matrix. The silk-cocoon is proteinaceous, highly porous, biodegradable, and a renewable biomaterial. The material is locally available at a competitively low price. This paper describes the findings of our investigation on the transesterification of vegetable oil in a small scale packed-bed reactor using lipase-immobilized on silk cocoon, a novel material of biological origin.
2.1. Materials
Powdered lipase (73000 U/g) from Aspergillus niger (RM-1265) was obtained from Himedia Laboratory Pvt., Ltd., India. Sodium hydroxide, methanol, glutaraldehyde, and para nitrophenyl acetate (PNPA) were obtained from Merck, India. Sunflower oil (SFO) was procured from local market. Silk cocoons produced by Antheraea assama were purchased from Sualkuchi, the silk village of Assam, India.
2.2. Immobilization of Lipase
The lipase was immobilized in fibrous silk cocoon. For that the inner worms were removed first and then the outer shells were collected and boiled for 2 hours to remove any sort of dust and microbial contamination. The cleaned cocoons were dried under air at room temperature. Each dried cocoon was then cut vertically and horizontally into eight small nearly uniform pieces. The sliced pieces of cocoons (total 4.69 grams) were treated with alkali (0.8 N NaOH) for 2 hours to remove gums and sericin (a protein) and then washed with methanol (250 mL) and double distilled water (500 mL). The cleaned sericin free cocoons were then treated with a mixture of equal volume of glutaraldehyde (5%) and lipase solution (1 g powdered lipase in 50 mL of 0.1 M sodium phosphate buffer of pH 7.2 (SPB)) for 24 hours at room temperature. The lipase-immobilized cocoon pieces were then washed with the 50 mM SPB followed by lyophilization for 8 hours to dryness and then kept at 4°C for further use.
2.3. Lipase Activity Assay
The activity of free and immobilized lipase was measured following a reported method using PNPA as a substrate with some minor modifications [21]. The activity of the enzyme was determined by measuring the absorption of the product p-nitrophenol formed in the solution at 410 nm. The reaction mixture (1.0 mL) consists of 0.5 mL 100 mM SPB, 2 mM p-nitrophenyl acetate, 5% CH3CN, and 0.25 mL of enzyme solution (powdered lipase in 0.1 M SPB) or suitable amount of silk cocoon immobilized-lipase in 0.25 mL 100 mM SPB. A control was run simultaneously using the same SPB. The reactions were initiated by adding 0.15 mL of 50 mM p-nitrophenyl acetate (initially dissolved in dry CH3CN) to the buffer solution containing the enzyme that was preincubated at 37°C for 3 min. The mixture was then incubated for 2 min at 37°C. The reaction was stopped by adding 1 mL acetone and then clarified at 10,000 ×g. The clear colored (pale yellow) solution was monitored for the formation of p-nitrophenol by measuring absorbance at 410 nm. One unit of the lipase activity was defined as the amount of enzyme which liberates 1 μmol of p-nitrophenol per min at 37°C. Experiments were carried out in triplicate and the data were considered with standard error within 5% at a confidence level of 0.85.
2.4. FESEM Analysis
The morphology of the silk-fiber on the cocoons surface before and after immobilization of lipase was studied by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) (instrument model: ZEISS; made by Sigma, Germany). The sample was imaged by scanning with high-energy beam electrons at 20 keV in a raster scan pattern. The sliced dry silk cocoons, which are nonconducting in nature, were initially coated with gold under vacuum. The dry specimens were then mounted on a specimen stub using an adhesive electrically-conductive double-sided adhesive tape.
2.5. Bioreactor for Transesterification of Sunflower Oil
The bioreactor used for the transesterification reaction is shown in Figure 1. Lipase-immobilized cocoons were packed in the column under normal atmospheric pressure and room temperature (25°C). Total volume of the packed-bed column was 37.17 mL, packed volume was 23.36 mL, and void volume was 13.81 mL. Above the packed column, nearly 10 mL space was left for retention and recirculation of the reaction mixture. A mixture of methanol and sunflower oil (250 mL in various ratios v/v) was sonicated in ultrasonic bath and taken in a three-necked round bottom glass container. Recirculation of the reaction mixture through the glass column containing silk-cocoon immobilized lipase was facilitated by means of a peristaltic pump (made by Miclins; model no.: PP20) at an optimized flow rate of 1.6 mL min−1. Continuous mixing of the oil-alcohol was confirmed by magnetic stirrer. The temperature of the water jacket was maintained by connecting the inlet and outlet terminals of the jacket to a digital temperature controlled water bath (made by Thermo Haake; model no: P5) with temperature range 5–95°C.
Bioreactor for silk-cocoon immobilized lipase catalyzed transesterification reaction for biodiesel production.
2.6. Product Analysis
The transesterification of sunflower oil for the production of biodiesel was carried out in the bioreactor containing lipase-immobilized cocoon matrix. The reaction was carried out at 30°C using reservoir substrate concentration of 25% (v/v). Samples, each of 1 mL, were withdrawn at different time intervals for gas-chromatographic analysis. The product was analyzed by injecting the sample in thermocapillary column (made by M/s Thermo Electron Corporation; model: TRACE TR-Wax MS) fitted on the gas chromatography equipment (made by Varian; model: CP-3800). The column has an internal diameter of 0.25 mm, film thickness of 0.25 μm, and length of 30 m, with the phase type of polyethylene glycol. The parameters used in the analyses were carrier gas, nitrogen (flow rate 2 mL/min), detector, FID, injector temperature, 28°C, and column and oven temperature, 230°C. For identification of the product in the chromatogram, the standard methyl esters (Sigma, USA) as well as the pure methyl esters of the fatty acids produced chemically from sunflower oil using alkaline transesterification method were used. Based on the total area of the major methyl esters in the chromatogram the quantitative estimation and yield of the product were calculated. Although sunflower oil contains different fatty acids of varying chain lengths and different degree of unsaturation, yet it contains three major fatty acids, namely, linoleic acid (C 18:2), oleic acid (C 18:1), and palmitic acid (C 16:0) [22]. We have calculated the total area under the three major ester peaks that appeared in the chromatogram. In order to compare the wholesomeness of the methyl ester formed during biocatalytic transesterification of sunflower oil, pure methyl esters were initially prepared from sunflower oil using sodium hydroxide as catalyst.
50 mL refined sunflower oil, 12.5 mL methanol, and 0.4 gram of anhydrous sodium hydroxide were mixed in a 250 mL Erlenmeyer flask sealed (air tight) with cork and kept in an orbital shaker at 150 rpm and 55°C for 8 hours. The reaction mixture was then taken in a separating funnel and the bottom layer of glycerol was separated out. Unreacted methanol was separated by vacuum distillation at 65°C using vacuum rotary evaporator (model: Hahnvapour; made by M/s Hahnshin Scientific Co.). The remaining liquid was washed four times with double distilled water by hand shaking in a separating funnel. The pure fatty acid methyl esters so obtained were dried by anhydrous sodium sulphate and kept in a glass bottle with airtight cork at 4°C for further use.
2.7. Statistics of Analysis
All the data presented in this study were the mean of three or more experiments with a variation within 10%. Analysis of variance was carried out for the statistical data, at following a standard method [23]. When the experimental data value was found to be significant, critical difference was calculated by multiplying the standard error of difference with the corresponding error values at 5% level of probability. Significant differences among the means were determined by using least significant difference test.
3.1. Morphological Study of Lipase-Immobilized Silk-Cocoons
The silk cocoons used for lipase immobilization were ovular in shape and brown in colour as shown in Figure 2(a). The average length and diameter of the cocoons were 5 cm and 2 cm, respectively. The average weight of the cocoon was 293.67 mg. The lipase was successfully immobilized into silk cocoons matrix using glutaraldehyde cross-linking which is evident from the FESEM images (Figure 2). Figures 2(b) and 2(c) show the FESEM images of the silk-cocoon fiber before and after immobilization of the lipase. Formation of white coating on the silk-fibers was observed after immobilization which were absent in the fibers of the native cocoons.
(a) Silk-cocoon from Antheraea assama. Image was captured by a camera (made by NIKON D 200) at F-50 mm. FESEM photograph (magnification: 500X) of silk-fiber of silk cocoons: (b) before lipase immobilization and (c) after lipase immobilization.
3.2. Lipase Loading Density and Kinetic Study of Immobilized Lipase
The activity of the loaded lipase was 738.74 U (~0.01 g lipase powder)/g-lipase-immobilized cocoons. An average of 0.22 g lipase powder was immobilized per gram of dry cocoon. To determine the apparent Michaelis-Menten constant () of the free and immobilized lipase, the initial activity was measured with different concentrations of PNPA at optimum assay conditions of 37°C and pH 7.2. Using the Lineweaver-Burk plot, the was determined to be 451.26 μM and 257.26 μM, respectively for the free and immobilized lipase. The reason for the lower Km value of the immobilized lipase than the free lipase is attributed to the hydrophobic [24, 25] and porous [26] nature of the silk-cocoon matrix that provides nonaqueous environment for fast diffusion of the less polar substrates, sunflower oil and methanol, which resulted in effective enzyme-substrate interaction for the catalysis.
3.3. Analysis of Biodiesel Yield by Gas Chromatography
In this investigation sunflower oil was selected as the substrate for the transesterification reaction on the basis of the fact that the fuel properties of the methyl ester of the fatty acids obtained from the sunflower oil were nearly similar to those found in the petroleum diesel oil [27]. About 1.18 and 1.27 liters of methyl ester of fatty acids obtained from sunflower oil and castor oil, respectively, were required to produce the same energy as that generated by a liter of diesel [28]. The analysis of different ester content in biodiesel blends or esterified vegetable oil samples is a unique challenge due to complexity of the sample. However, gas chromatography has been efficiently used for easy analysis of methyl esters [29]. The major compounds formed with both alkali and lipase catalyzed transesterification reactions were the esters of palmitic acid (C 16:0), oleic acid (C 18:1), and linoleic acid (C 18:2). Moreover, the ratios of these esters formed in both transesterification reactions were also found to be nearly the same. It is known that the specificity of alkali catalysts for the acyl side chains in lipids during transesterification reaction is practically nil [12]. Hence, it may be inferred that palmitic acid, oleic acid, and linoleic acid are the predominant fatty acids present as acyl chains in the triacylglycerol constituent of the substrate sunflower oil used in this investigation. The percentages of linoleic acid, oleic acid, and palmitic acid present in the sunflower oil were ~71.4, ~15.9, and ~5.8, respectively [22]. The properties of the sunflower oil and its methyl ester are provided in Table 1. We compared the range of product formed during silk-cocoon immobilized lipase catalyzed transesterification reaction with the one formed during conventional alkali catalyzed transesterification reaction in gas chromatograms as shown in Figures 3(a) and 3(b). These findings also further implied that the quality of the methyl esters and hence the biodiesel formed during silk-cocoon immobilized lipase catalyzed transesterification reaction would be nearly similar to those obtained by conventional alkali catalyzed transesterification reaction. The conversion yield calculated was based on the relative conversion yield of the three major esters (i.e., the methyl esters of palmitic acid (C 16:0), oleic acid (C 18:1), and linoleic acid (C 18:2)) compared with the yield obtained by pure alkali catalyzed transesterification of sunflower oil. The yield obtained by using silk-cocoon immobilized lipase was found to be 86%. We calculated the yield by considering that sodium hydroxide catalyzed transesterification of sunflower oil with methanol gives 100% yield. The alkali catalyzed transesterification reaction was carried out for extended time to ensure complete conversion of sunflower oil to biodiesel. Notably, a biodiesel yield of 97.1% using alkali catalyzed transesterification of sunflower oil has been reported [30].
Property of sunflower oil and its methyl ester.
Gas chromatogram of fatty acid methyl esters formed in the transesterification reaction catalyzed by (a) chemical catalyst (alkali) and (b) silk-cocoon immobilized lipase. Methyl esters of a: palmitic acid (C 16:0), b: oleic acid (C 18:1), and c: linoleic acid (C 18:2).
3.4. Optimization of Alcohol-Oil Ratio and Temperature for Transesterification Reaction
Substrate conversion yields were studied at different methanol to sunflower oil ratio. The substrate conversion yields (%) of 64.38, 76.86, 81.62, and 76.51 were obtained at the corresponding methanol to sunflower oil ratio (v/v) of 2 : 1, 4 : 1, 6 : 1, and 8 : 1. Therefore, the ratio of 6 : 1 (v/v) was identified as optimum for the substrate conversion yield at 30°C and 48 hours. The results agreed to the other reports [31, 32]. The transesterification reaction was carried out at different temperatures keeping 48 hours as reaction time and methanol : oil ratio at 6 : 1 (v/v). Initially, the ester yield was increased with increasing temperature starting from 20°C. A maximum yield of 86% was achieved at 37°C (Figure 4).
Effect of temperature on ester yields during the transesterification reaction catalyzed by the silk-cocoon immobilized lipase in a packed-bed bioreactor. Each datum point represents the average of the analysis of triplicate values represented by the error bars.
The influence of temperature on the ester yield during immobilized lipase catalyzed transesterification reaction has been reported by others [33]. The thermal stability of the immobilized lipase was comparatively higher than the lipase in free form and at elevated temperature beyond 40°C the yield of the ester was declined.
3.5. Biodiesel Yield versus Reaction Time
The substrate conversion and the corresponding yield of the esters in the bioreactor were monitored at different reaction time intervals at 30°C. The low reaction temperature (30°C) was chosen to prolong the stability of the enzyme and to reduce the energy consumption involved in the process.
The substrate conversion yield reached the stationery phase after 48 hours of the reaction time (Figure 5), where maximum conversion achieved was 81.62%.
Variation in substrate conversion yields during transesterification in packed-bed bioreactor with the progress of reaction time at 30°C. (Each datum point represents the average of the analysis of triplicate values represented by the error bars.)
The reaction was investigated for the consecutive cycles using the same set of immobilized lipase keeping 48 hours of reaction time for each cycle (Figure 6). The substrate conversion was only marginally decreased till third cycle of the reaction since less than even 5% of the original activity was decreased in each of the second and third cycle. Nearly 60% of the original activity was retained in the fourth cycle. At the end of sixth cycle ~37% of the original activity was retained.
Operational stability of the silk-cocoon immobilized lipase carried out at 30°C.
The results demonstrated the high operational stability of the silk-cocoon immobilized lipase. The high operational stability of the immobilized lipase will lead to a high cumulative yield of the biodiesel after repeating the reaction at least up to the sixth reaction cycle.
The silk-cocoon, a biodegradable and renewable biomaterial, is demonstrated as novel support matrix for the chemical immobilization of lipase. The cocoon matrix greatly enhanced the catalytic efficiency of the lipase by providing hydrophobic and porous microenvironment that facilitates diffusion of the nonpolar substrates to interact with the enzyme and promotes the reactions. A packed-bed bioreactor was successfully fabricated with the immobilized lipase for transesterification of sunflower oil for the production of biodiesel. The silk-cocoon matrix also offers high operational stability to the lipase and high biodiesel conversion yield, hence supporting the prospect of scaling up the process for industrial production of biodiesel.
The authors gratefully acknowledge Mr. Muksud Hussain for generously supplying the silk cocoon, Ms. Sharmin A. Hussain for her initial technical help, and Mr. Prasun Bhattacharjee for his technical support for the GC analysis. The equipment facilities supported by the Department of Chemical Engineering (for GC) and CIF (for FESEM), IIT Guwahati, are duly acknowledged.
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