jokol

Friday, February 29, 2008

LPG

Liquefied petroleum gas (also called LPG, LP Gas, or autogas) is a fusion of hydrocarbon gases used as a fuel in heating appliances and vehicles, and increasingly replacing chlorofluorocarbons as an vaporizer propellant and a refrigerant to decrease damage to the ozone layer.

Varieties of LPG bought and sold include mixes that are primarily propane, mixes that are primarily butane, and the more common, mixes including both propane (60%) and butane (40%), depending on the season—in winter more propane, in summer more butane. Propylene and butylenes are usually also present in small concentration. A powerful odorant, ethanethiol, is added so that leaks can be detected easily.

LPG is manufactured during the refinement of crude oil, or extracted from oil or gas streams as they materialize from the ground. At normal temperatures and pressures, LPG will vanish. Because of this, LPG is supplied in pressurised steel bottles. In order to allow for thermal extension of the contained liquid, these bottles are not filled completely. Typically, they are filled to between 80% and 85% of their capacity. The share between the volumes of the vaporised gas and the liquefied gas varies depending on composition, pressure and temperature, but is typically around 250:1. The pressure at which LPG becomes liquid, called its vapor pressure, similarly varies depending on composition and temperature; for example, it is approximately 220 kilopascals (2.2 bar) for pure butane at 20 °C (68 °F), and approximately 2.2 megapascals (22 bar) for pure propane at 55 °C (131 °F). LPG is heavier than air, and thus will flow along floors and tend to settle in low spots, such as basements.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Blood

Blood is a specialized bodily liquid that is composed of a liquid called blood plasma and blood cells balanced within the plasma. The blood cells near in blood are red blood cells also called RBCs or erythrocytes, white blood cells with both leukocytes and lymphocytes and platelets also called thrombocytes. Plasma is mostly water containing dissolved proteins, salts and many other substances; and makes up about 55% of blood by volume. Mammals have red blood, which is bright red when oxygenated, due to hemoglobin. Some animals, such as the horseshoe crab use hemocyanin to carry oxygen, instead of hemoglobin.

By far the most plentiful cells in blood are red blood cells. These contain hemoglobin, an iron-containing protein, which facilitates carrying of oxygen by reversibly binding to this respiratory gas and greatly increasing its solubility in blood. In contrast, carbon dioxide is almost entirely transported extracellularly dissolved in plasma as bicarbonate ion. White blood cells help to stand firm infections and parasites, and platelets are important in the clotting of blood.

Blood is circulated around the body through blood vessels by the pumping action of the heart. Arterial blood carries oxygen from inhaled air to the tissues of the body, and venous blood carries carbon dioxide, a waste product of metabolism produced by cells, from the tissues to the lungs to be exhaled.

Medical terms related to blood often begin with hemo- or hemato- from the Greek word "αἷμα" for "blood." Anatomically and histologically, blood is considered a specific form of connective hankie, given its origin in the bones and the incidence of potential molecular fibers in the form of fibrinogen.