Abstract:Great attention should be paid now to simultaneously removing common pollutants, especially inorganic pollutants such as nitrate and heavy metals, as individual removal has been investigated extensively. Removing common pollutants simultaneously by iron metal is a very effective alternative method. Near neutral pH, heavy metals, such as copper and nickel, can be removed rapidly by iron metal, while nitrate removal very much slower than that of copper and nickel, and copper can accelerate nitrate removal when both are removed simultaneously. Even a little amount of copper can enhance nitrate removal efficiently. Different mechanisms of these contaminants removal by iron metal were also discussed.
Keywords:Simultaneously removing;Iron metal;Nitrate;Heavy metal
Abstract:Copper accumulation and intracellular distribution in Elsholtzia splendens, a native Chinese Cu-tolerant and accumulating plant species, was investigated by transmission electron microscope (TEM) and gradient centrifugation techniques. Copper concentrations in roots, stems and leaves of E. splendens increased with increasing Cu levels in solution. After exposure to 500 μmol/L Cu for 8 d, about 1000 mg/kg Cu were accumulated in the stem and 250 mg/kg Cu in the leaf of E. splendens. At 50 µmol/L Cu, no significant toxicity was observed in the chloroplast and mitochondrion within its leaf cells, but separation appeared at the cytoplasm and the cell wall within the root cells. At >250 µmol/L Cu, both root and leaf organelles in E. splendens were damaged heavily by excessive Cu in vivo. Copper subcellular localization in the plant leaf after 8 days’ exposure to 500 µmol/L Cu using gradient centrifugation techniques was found to be decreased in the order: chloroplast>cell wall>soluble fraction>other organelles. The plant root cell wall was found to be the site of highest Cu localization. Increase of Cu exposure time from 8 d to 16 d, increased slightly Cu concentration in cell wall fraction in roots and leaves, while that in the chloroplast fraction decreased in leaves of the plants grown in both 0.25 μmol/L and 500 μmol/L Cu. TEM confirmed that much more Cu localized in cell walls of E. splendens roots and leaves, but also more Cu localized in E. splendens’ chloroplast when the plant is exposed to Cu levels>250 μmol/L, as compared to those in the plant grown in 0.25 μmol/L Cu. Copper treatment at levels>250 μmol/L caused pronounced damage in the leaf chloroplast and root organelles. Copper localization in cell walls and chloroplasts could mainly account for the high detoxification of Cu in E. splendens.
Keywords:Cell wall;Chloroplast;Cu detoxification;Elsholtzia splendens;Ultrastructural distribution
Abstract:Synergetic effects for p-nitrophenol degradation were observed in the ozonation with ultrasonic enhancement. The enhancements of removal rate for p-nitrophenol and TOC were around 116% and 294% respectively in comparison with the individual ultrasound and ozonation systems. The synergetic phenomenon is attributed to two physicochemical mechanisms: (1) Ultrasound decomposes ozone causing augmentation of the activity of free radicals; (2) Ultrasonic wave increased the concentration of O3 in solution because of ultrasonic dispersion.
Abstract:Cadmium (Cd) is ubiquitous in the human environment and has toxic effect on soil microbial biomass or its activity, including microbial biomass carbon (Cmic), dehydrogenase activity (DHA) and basal respiration (BR), etc., Cmic, DHA, BR were used as bioindicators of the toxic effect of Cd in soil. This study was conducted to determine the effects of Cd on soil microbial biomass and its activity in a paddy soil. The inhibition of microbial biomass and its activity by different Cd concentrations was described by the kinetic model (M1) and the sigmoid dose-response model (M2) in order to calculate three ecological doses of Cd: ED50, ED10 and ED5. Results showed that M2 was better fit than M1 for describing the ecological toxicity dose effect of cadmium on soil microbial biomass and its activity in a paddy soil. M2 for ED values (mg/kg soil) of Cmic, DHA, BR best fitted the measured paddy soil bioindicators. M2 showed that all ED values (mg/kg) increased in turn with increased incubation time. ED50, ED10 and ED5 of Cmic with M2 were increased in turn from 403.2, 141.1, 100.4 to 1000.7, 230.9, 144.8, respectively, after 10 d to 60 d of incubation. ED50, ED10 and ED5 of DHA with M2 increased in turn from 67.6, 6.2, 1.5 to 101.1, 50.9, 41.0, respectively, after 10 d to 60 d of incubation. ED50, ED10 and ED5 of BR with M2 increased in turn from 149.7, 6.5, 1.8 to 156.5, 50.8, 35.5, respectively, after 10 d to 60 d of incubation. So the ecological dose increased in turn with increased incubation time for M2 showed that toxicity of cadmium to soil microbial biomass and its activity was decreased with increased incubation time.
Abstract:Studies on coupled transfer of soil moisture and heat have been widely carried out for decades. However, little work has been done on red soils, widespread in southern China. The simultaneous transfer of soil moisture and heat depends on soil physical properties and the climate conditions. Red soil is heavy clay and high content of free iron and aluminum oxide. The climate conditions are characterized by the clear four seasons and the serious seasonal drought. The great annual and diurnal air temperature differences result in significant fluctuation in soil temperature in top layer. The closed and evaporating columns experiments with red soil were conducted to simulate the coupled transfer of soil water and heat under the overlaying and opening fields’ conditions, and to analyze the effects of soil temperature gradient on the water transfer and the effects of initial soil water contents on the transfer of soil water and heat. The closed and evaporating columns were designed similarly with about 18 °C temperatures differences between the top and bottom boundary, except of the upper end closed or exposed to the air, respectively. Results showed that in the closed column, water moved towards the cold end driven by temperature gradient, while the transported water decreased with the increasing initial soil water content until the initial soil water content reached to field capacity equivalent, when almost no changes for the soil moisture profile. In the evaporating column, the net transport of soil water was simultaneously driven by evaporation and temperature gradients, and the drier soil was more influenced by temperature gradient than by evaporation. In drier soil, it took a longer time for the temperature to reach equilibrium, because of more net amount of transported water.
Keywords:Red soil;Coupled transfer of water and heat;Evaporation;Initial soil moisture
Abstract:Simulation models of heat and water transport have not been rigorously tested for the red soils of southern China. Based on the theory of nonisothermal water-heat coupled transfer, a simulation model, programmed in Visual Basic 6.0, was developed to predict the coupled transfer of water and heat in hilly red soil. A series of soil column experiments for soil water and heat transfer, including soil columns with closed and evaporating top ends, were used to test the simulation model. Results showed that in the closed columns, the temporal and spatial distribution of moisture and heat could be very well predicted by the model, while in the evaporating columns, the simulated soil water contents were somewhat different from the observed ones. In the heat flow equation by Taylor and Lary (1964), the effect of soil water evaporation on the heat flow is not involved, which may be the main reason for the differences between simulated and observed results. The predicted temperatures were not in agreement with the observed one with thermal conductivities calculated by de Vries and Wierenga equations, so that it is suggested that Kh, soil heat conductivity, be multiplied by 8.0 for the first 6.5 h and by 1.2 later on. Sensitivity analysis of soil water and heat coefficients showed that the saturated hydraulic conductivity, KS, and the water diffusivity, D(θ), had great effects on soil water transport; the variation of soil porosity led to the difference of soil thermal properties, and accordingly changed temperature redistribution, which would affect water redistribution.
Keywords:Red soil;Coupled transfer of soil water and heat;Simulation model;Validation;Sensitivity analysis
Abstract:The performance of the Dongying multi-stage ponds-wetlands ecosystem was investigated in this work. Study of the removal of different pollutants (BOD5, COD, SS, TP, TN, NH3-N, etc.) in different temperature seasons and different units in this system indicated that effluent BOD5 and SS were constant to less than 11 mg/L and 14 mg/L throughout the experimental processes; but that the removal efficiencies of pollutants such as TP, TN, NH3-N, COD varied greatly with season. The higher the temperature was, the higher was the observed removal in this system. Additionally, each unit of the system functioned differently in removing pollutants. BOD5 and SS were mainly removed in the first three units (hybrid facultative ponds, aeration ponds and aerated fish ponds), whereas nitrogen and phosphates were mainly removed in hydrophyte ponds and constructed reed wetlands. The multi-stage ponds-wetlands ecosystem exhibits good potential of removing different pollutants, and the effluent quality meet several standards for wastewater reuse.
Abstract:Influence of temperature on ruthenium adsorption on activated charcoal from 3 mol/L HNO3 solutions was investigated in the temperature range of 288 K to 308 K. It was observed that the rise in temperature increases the adsorption of ruthenium ions on activated charcoal and follows the kinetics of first order rate law with rate constant values 0.0564–0.0640 min−1 in the temperature range of 288 K to 308 K respectively. The activation energy for the adsorption process was found to be 1.3806 kJ/mol. Various thermodynamics quantities namely ΔH, ΔS and ΔG were computed from the equilibrium constant KC values. The results indicated a positive heat of adsorption, a positive ΔS and a negative ΔG.
Abstract:Experimental investigations were conducted on the process of combustion and explosion vent in a 200 mm (diameter)×400 mm (length) vertical cylindrical vessel. When CH4-air mixture gases were used and the vent diameter was 55 mm, conditions of Φ (equivalent ratio)=0.8, Φ=1.0 and Φ=1.3 and two ignition positions (at the cylinder center and bottom) were selected. The venting processes and the correlated factors are discussed in this paper.
Abstract:Protonating the pyridine rings of poly(pyridine-2,5-diyl) with dodecybenzenesulfonic acid and camphorsulphonic acid produces polymer materials which can be dissolved in chloroform (in contrast to the unprotonated polymer, which can only be dissolved in strong acids such as formic acid) and allows mixing the protonated polymers with other chloroform soluble conjugated polymers for use in electronic devices. The protonating behavior of poly(pyridine-2,5-diyl) with two kinds of surfactants is different in some levels. Dodecybenzenesulfonic acid has higher protonating ability than camphorsulphonic acid.
Abstract:A preferentially oriented mordenite membrane was successfully prepared on a seeded porous α-alumina support. Characterization results of XRD (X-ray diffractometer) and FE-SEM (field emission scanning electron microscope) revealed that evolutionary selection might predominantly contribute to the formation of the sharply oriented mordenite membrane. The necessary conditions under which evolutionary selection occurs are: (a) the number density of nuclei on the support surface should be high enough at the early stage; (b) the crystals should grow fastest along one direction; and (c) the zeolite layer should proceed via the successive growth of the crystals nucleated on the support surface instead of the accumulation of the crystals formed in the bulk solution.
Abstract:Catalytic activity of activated carbon supported tungstosilicic acid in synthesizing 2-methyl-2-ethoxycarbonylmethyl-1,3-dioxolane, 2,4-dimethyl-2-ethoxycarbonylmethyl-1,3-dioxolane, cyclohexanone ethylene ketal, cyclohexanone 1,2-propa-nediol ketal, butanone ethylene ketal, butanone 1,2-propanediol ketal, 2-phenyl-1,3-dioxolane, 4-methyl-2-phenyl-1,3-dioxolane, 2-propyl-1,3-dioxolane, 4-methyl-2-propyl-1,3-dioxolane was reported. It has been demon-strated that activated carbon supported tungstosilicic acid is an excellent catalyst. Various factors involved in these reactions were investigated. The optimum conditions found were: molar ratio of aldehyde/ketone to glycol is 1/1.5, mass ratio of the catalyst used to the reactants is 1.0%, and reaction time is 1.0 h. Under these conditions, the yield of 2-methyl-2-ethoxycarbonylmethyl-1,3-dioxolane is 61.5%, of 2,4-dimethyl-2-ethoxycarbonylmethyl-1,3-dioxolane is 69.1%, of cyclohexanone ethylene ketal is 74.6%, of cyclohexanone 1,2-propanediol ketal is 80.1%, of butanone ethylene ketal is 69.5%, of butanone 1,2-propanediol ketal is 78.5%, of 2-phenyl-1,3-dioxolane is 56.7%, of 4-methyl-2-phenyl-1,3-dioxolane is 86.2%, of 2-propyl-1,3-dioxolane is 87.5%, of 4-methyl-2-propyl-1,3-dioxolane is 87.9%.
Abstract:Platinum/carbon catalyst is one of the most important catalysts in hydrogenation of ortho-nitrochlorobenzene to 2,2′-dichlorohydrazobenzene. The preparation process and the supports of catalysts are studied in this paper. Raw materials and preparation procedure of the activated carbon have great influences on the compositions and surface structure of platinum/carbon catalysts. Platinum catalysts supported on activated carbon with high purity, high surface area, large pore volume and appropriate pore structure usually exhibit higher activities for hydrogenation of ortho-nitrochlorobenzene to 2,2′-dichlorohydrazobenzene. The catalyst prepared from H2PtCl6 with pH=3 shows greater catalytic performance than those prepared under other conditions.
Abstract:Genetic improvement for drought stress tolerance in rice involves the quantitative nature of the trait, which reflects the additive effects of several genetic loci throughout the genome. Yield components and related traits under stressed and well-water conditions were assayed in mapping populations derived from crosses of Azucena×IR64 and Azucena×Bala. To find the candidate rice genes underlying Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) in these populations, we conducted in silico analysis of a candidate region flanked by the genetic markers RM212 and RM319 on chromosome 1, proximal to the semi-dwarf (sd1) locus. A total of 175 annotated genes were identified from this region. These included 48 genes annotated by functional homology to known genes, 23 pseudogenes, 24 ab initio predicted genes supported by an alignment match to an EST (Expressed sequence tag) of unknown function, and 80 hypothetical genes predicted solely by ab initio means. Among these, 16 candidate genes could potentially be involved in drought stress response.
Keywords:Rice genome sequence;Candidate genes;Drought stress;Quantitative trait loci (QTL)
Abstract:To study the effect of high temperature, rice seedlings 20, 30, 40 and 50 d were kept at 5, 10, 15 and 20 cm water depth in a water pool. Meteorological findings indicated that water temperature varied up to 10 cm but became stable below this depth. Deep water inflicted higher tiller mortality, minimal increase in dry weight of aerial parts and leaf area, decrease in root length, and decrease in root dry weight especially at 20 cm water depth and produced an unbalanced T/R ratio (top versus root dry weight). However, deep water tended to increase plant length. These parameters, however, excel in shallow water. Older seedlings, with the exception of root dry weight, could not perform well compared to young seedlings in all physiological and morphological aspects. The study revealed that seedlings, particularly young ones, stand well in shallow water and can cope with high temperature.
Abstract:Plasmid vector is increasingly applied to gene therapy or gene vaccine. The production of plasmid pCMV-AP3 for cancer gene therapy was conducted in a modified MBL medium using a recombinant E. coli BL21 system. The effects of different MMBL components on plasmid yield, cell mass and specific plasmid DNA productivity were evaluated on shake-flask scale. The results showed that glucose was the optimal carbon source. High plasmid yield (58.3 mg/L) was obtained when 5.0 g/L glucose was added to MMBL. Glycerol could be chosen as a complementary carbon source because of the highest specific plasmid productivity (37.9 mg DNA/g DCW). After tests of different levels of nitrogen source and inorganic phosphate, a modified MMBL medium was formulated for optimal plasmid production. Further study showed that the initial acetate addition (less than 4.0 g/L) in MMBL improved plasmid production significantly, although it inhibited cell growth. The results will be useful for large-scale plasmid production using recombinant E. coli system.
Abstract:This paper proposes a high specificity and sensitivity algorithm called PromPredictor for recognizing promoter regions in the human genome. PromPredictor extracts compositional features and CpG islands information from genomic sequence, feeding these features as input for a hybrid neural network system (HNN) and then applies the HNN for prediction. It combines a novel promoter recognition model, coding theory, feature selection and dimensionality reduction with machine learning algorithm. Evaluation on Human chromosome 22 was ~66% in sensitivity and ~48% in specificity. Comparison with two other systems revealed that our method had superior sensitivity and specificity in predicting promoter regions. PromPredictor is written in MATLAB and requires Matlab to run. PromPredictor is freely available at http://www.whtelecom.com/Prompredictor.htm.
Abstract:Using the complete genome of Plasmodium falciparum 3D7 which has 14 chromosomes as an example, we have examined the distribution functions for the amount of C or G and A or T consecutively and non-overlapping blocks of m bases in this system. The function P(S) about the number of the consecutive C-G or A-T content cluster conforms to the relation P(S)∝e−αs; values of the scaling exponent αCG are much larger than αAT; and αAT of 14 chromosomes are hardly changed, whereas αCG of 14 chromosomes have a number of fluctuations. We found maximum value of A-T cluster size is much larger than C-G, which implies the existence of large A-T cluster. Our study of the width function ξ(m) of cluster C-G content showed that follows good power law ξ(m)∝m−γ. The average γ̄ for 14 chromosomes is 0.931. These investigations provide some insight into the nucleotide clusters of DNA sequences, and help us understand other properties of DNA sequences.
Keywords:DNA sequence;Plasmodium falciparum 3D7;Nucleotide clusters;Power law
Abstract:Maintaining genetic diversity is a major issue in conservation biology. In this study, we demonstrate the differences of genetic diversity levels between wild and captive individuals of Elliot’s Pheasant Syrmaticus ellioti. Wild individuals showed a higher genetic diversity level than that of the captive individuals. Nucleotide diversity and haplotype diversity of wild individuals were 0.00628 and 0.993, while those of captive individuals were 0.00150 and 0.584 respectively. Only 3 haplotypes of mtDNA control region sequence were identified among 36 captive individuals, while 16 unique haplotypes were identified among the 17 wild individuals in this study. One captive haplotype was shared by a wild individual from Anhui Province. It is concluded that a low number of founders was the likely reason for the lower level genetic diversity of the captive group. Careful genetic management is suggested for captive populations, particularly of such an endangered species, to maintain genetic variability levels.
Abstract:In this work, datasets of water and carbon fluxes measured with eddy covariance technique above a summer maize field in the North China Plain were simulated with artificial neural networks (ANNs) to explore the fluxes responses to local environmental variables. The results showed that photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), vapor pressure deficit (VPD), air temperature (T) and leaf area index (LAI) were primary factors regulating both water vapor and carbon dioxide fluxes. Three-layer back-propagation neural networks (BP) could be applied to model fluxes exchange between cropland surface and atmosphere without using detailed physiological information or specific parameters of the plant.
Keywords:Carbon dioxide;Water vapor and heat fluxes;Three-layer back-propagation neural networks
Abstract:Biomass and microbial activity in backwashing processes of a biofilter for tertiary treatment were investigated. The microbial groups revealed new distribution along the biofilter depth after low flow rate backwashing for a short time. Then the start-up process was accelerated by backwashing. The biomass profile and microbial activity profile both varying with depth before and after backwashing, can be mathematically described by quadratic equations. Using the profiles, the difference of oxygen demand can be calculated to determine the airflow rate during backwashing. Combined with the difference between biofilters and rapid gravity filters, analysis of biomass and microbial activity can determine more accurately the required airflow rate during backwashing.
Abstract:Pseudomonas sp. ZD8 isolated from contaminated soil was immobilized with platane wood chips to produce packing materials for a novel biofilter system utilized to control restaurant emissions. The effects of operational parameters including retention time, temperature, and inlet gas concentration on the removal efficiency and elimination capacity were evaluated. Criteria necessary for a scale-up design of the biofilter was established. High and satisfactory level of rapeseed oil smoke removal efficiency was maintained during operation and the optimal retention time was found to be 18 s corresponding to smoke removal efficiency greater than 97%. The optimal inlet rapeseed oil smoke loading was 120 mg/(m3·h) at the upper end of the linear correlation between inlet loading and elimination capacity.
Abstract:We have developed a new three dimensional (3-D) conductivity imaging approach and have used it to detect human brain conductivity changes corresponding to acute cerebral stroke. The proposed Magnetic Resonance Electrical Impedance Tomography (MREIT) approach is based on the J-Substitution algorithm and is expanded to imaging 3-D subject conductivity distribution changes. Computer simulation studies have been conducted to evaluate the present MREIT imaging approach. Simulations of both types of cerebral stroke, hemorrhagic stroke and ischemic stroke, were performed on a four-sphere head model. Simulation results showed that the correlation coefficient (CC) and relative error (RE) between target and estimated conductivity distributions were 0.9245±0.0068 and 8.9997%±0.0084%, for hemorrhagic stroke, and 0.6748±0.0197 and 8.8986%±0.0089%, for ischemic stroke, when the SNR (signal-to-noise radio) of added GWN (Gaussian White Noise) was 40. The convergence characteristic was also evaluated according to the changes of CC and RE with different iteration numbers. The CC increases and RE decreases monotonously with the increasing number of iterations. The present simulation results show the feasibility of the proposed 3-D MREIT approach in hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke detection and suggest that the method may become a useful alternative in clinical diagnosis of acute cerebral stroke in humans.
Abstract:To determine the pharmacokinetics of gemcitabine (2′,2′-difluorodeoxycytidine) in Chinese non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Six study subjects were administered gemcitabine at a fixed dose rate of 10 mg/m2 per min (1200 mg/m2, two hours infusion) and carboplatin, and plasma gemcitabine concentrations were measured by ion-pair reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). 3P97 Pharmaceutical Kinetics Software was used for the calculation of pharmacokinetic parameters. The obtained mean parameters, elimnation half life (t1/2) (10.67±3.38 min), area under the curve (AUC) (7.55±1.53 (µg·h)/ml), and clearance (CL) (3940.05±672.08 ml/min), were consistent with those reported in literature. The hematologic toxicology result showed that the regimen was effective on and tolerated by the patients.