scholarly journals High Flocculation of Coal Washing Wastewater Using a Novel Bioflocculant from Isaria cicadae GZU6722

2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-64
Author(s):  
XIAO ZOU ◽  
JIALONG SUN ◽  
JUAN LI ◽  
YANLONG JIA ◽  
TANGFU XIAO ◽  
...  

Chanhua (Isaria cicadae) was known as a rare entomogenous fungus with various pharmacological activities since a long time ago in China, which has attracted considerable attention. However, less knowledge was maintained about its products as potential bioflocculants. In this work, a bioflocculant IC-1 produced by Isaria cicadae GZU6722, consisted mainly of protein (4%) and polysaccharides including neutral sugars (52.75%) and galacturonic acid (38.14%), was characterized. It presented high efficiency in flocculating coal washing wastewater, and the flocculating efficiency could reach 91.81% by addition of 24 mg l–1 IC-1 compared to the addition of 60 mg l–1 APAM (anionic polyacrylamide) under the same treatment conditions. The highest flocculating efficiency reached 95.8% in the presence of 2% CaCl2. Compared to APAM, the flocculating efficiency of coal washing wastewater by IC-1 varied little with the increasing dosage. Although the flocs in the APAM-assisted sediment were larger than that in the IC-1-assisted sediment after 1 min of sedimentation, few flocs were still found in the supernatant of both treated samples after 10 min of sedimentation. More interestingly, it was observed under the microscope that the flocs in the IC-1-assisted sediments were more compact than that in the APAM-assisted sediments, suggesting that polymer bridging might take place after IC-1 was added into the coal washing wastewater. The evaluation of costs indicated that the use of IC-1 to treat the coal-washing wastewater may be an economical and feasible way to avoid the extra cost for post-treatment of conventional flocculants.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zahra Arefinia ◽  
Dip Prakash Samajdar

AbstractNumerical-based simulations of plasmonic polymer solar cells (PSCs) incorporating a disordered array of non-uniform sized plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs) impose a prohibitively long-time and complex computational demand. To surmount this limitation, we present a novel semi-analytical modeling, which dramatically reduces computational time and resource consumption and yet is acceptably accurate. For this purpose, the optical modeling of active layer-incorporated plasmonic metal NPs, which is described by a homogenization theory based on a modified Maxwell–Garnett-Mie theory, is inputted in the electrical modeling based on the coupled equations of Poisson, continuity, and drift–diffusion. Besides, our modeling considers the effects of absorption in the non-active layers, interference induced by electrodes, and scattered light escaping from the PSC. The modeling results satisfactorily reproduce a series of experimental data for photovoltaic parameters of plasmonic PSCs, demonstrating the validity of our modeling approach. According to this, we implement the semi-analytical modeling to propose a new high-efficiency plasmonic PSC based on the PM6:Y6 PSC, having the highest reported power conversion efficiency (PCE) to date. The results show that the incorporation of plasmonic NPs into PM6:Y6 active layer leads to the PCE over 18%.


Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 1117
Author(s):  
Bin Li ◽  
Zhikang Jiang ◽  
Jie Chen

Computing the sparse fast Fourier transform (sFFT) has emerged as a critical topic for a long time because of its high efficiency and wide practicability. More than twenty different sFFT algorithms compute discrete Fourier transform (DFT) by their unique methods so far. In order to use them properly, the urgent topic of great concern is how to analyze and evaluate the performance of these algorithms in theory and practice. This paper mainly discusses the technology and performance of sFFT algorithms using the aliasing filter. In the first part, the paper introduces the three frameworks: the one-shot framework based on the compressed sensing (CS) solver, the peeling framework based on the bipartite graph and the iterative framework based on the binary tree search. Then, we obtain the conclusion of the performance of six corresponding algorithms: the sFFT-DT1.0, sFFT-DT2.0, sFFT-DT3.0, FFAST, R-FFAST, and DSFFT algorithms in theory. In the second part, we make two categories of experiments for computing the signals of different SNRs, different lengths, and different sparsities by a standard testing platform and record the run time, the percentage of the signal sampled, and the L0, L1, and L2 errors both in the exactly sparse case and the general sparse case. The results of these performance analyses are our guide to optimize these algorithms and use them selectively.


Author(s):  
Paul C.-P. Chao ◽  
Yen-Ping Hsu ◽  
Yung-Hua Kao ◽  
Kuei-Yu Lee

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have drawn much attention in areas of displays and varied illumination devices due to multiple advantages, such as high brightness, high efficiency, wide viewing angle, and simple structure. However, the long-time degradation of OLED emission is a serious drawback. This degradation was investigated by past works, which pointed out that the degradation was induced by high-density currents through OLED component under the long-time operation [1][2]. Proposed by a past work [3], different reverse biases was imposed on OLED components in display frames to alleviate the long-time degradation on OLEDs. Most recently, along with the reverse bias, new pixel circuits [4][5] for AMOLED displays are designed to alleviate OLED degradation, thus successfully extending OLED life time. However, since emission luminances in different frame times during AMOLED displaying differs significantly for displaying varied images, the OLED degradation evolves in a highly unpredictable fashion. In this study, based on valid theories, the voltage across the OLED is first used as indicator for OLED degradation. Then the relation between the level of OLED degradation, in terms of OLED’s cross voltage, and the history of imposing reverse biases are precisely modeled. With the model, the degradation of the OLED under reverse bias to extend lifetime can be successfully predicted. Based on this model, engineers can then optimize the applied reverse bias on OLEDs to maximize the OLED lifetime for varied display requirement.


Author(s):  
Hironori Nakagami

Abstract There is currently an outbreak of respiratory disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by infection with SARS-CoV-2. Individuals with COVID-19 have symptoms that are usually asymptomatic or mild in most initial cases. However, in some cases, moderate and severe symptoms have been observed with pneumonia. Many companies are developing COVID-19 vaccine candidates using different technologies that are classified into four groups (intact target viruses, proteins, viral vectors and nucleic acids). For rapid development, RNA vaccines and adenovirus vector vaccines have been urgently approved, and their injection has already started across the world. These types of vaccine technologies have been developed over more than 20 years using translational research for use against cancer or diseases caused by genetic disorders but the COVID-19 vaccines are the first licensed drugs to prevent infectious diseases using RNA vaccine technology. Although these vaccines are highly effective in preventing COVID-19 for a short period, safety and efficiency evaluations should be continuously monitored over a long time period. As the time of writing, more than 10 projects are now in phase 3 to evaluate the prevention of infection in double-blind studies. Hopefully, several projects may be approved to ensure high-efficiency and safe vaccines.


Author(s):  
Shuaibu Babaji Sanusi ◽  
Mohd Fadzelly Abu Bakar ◽  
Maryati Mohamed ◽  
Siti Fatimah Sabran ◽  
Muhammad Murtala Mainasara

The genus Nepenthes (Nepenthaceae) has been utilized in folk medicine for a long time in India and Southeast Asia countries. They are used in the treatment of leprosy, cholera, night blindness, gastrointestinal discomfort, dysentery, stomachache, and bed-wetting among others. This review highlights the ethnobotanical uses, phytochemicals, and pharmacological activities of both crude extracts and pure bioactive compounds of Nepenthes spp. The phytochemical compounds isolated from Nepenthes species include flavonoids, terpenoids, tannins, alkaloids, and steroids among other phytochemicals. A wide range of pharmacological activities was exhibited by the crude extracts and pure bioactive components such as antibacterial, antifungal, antimalarial antioxidant, antidiabetic, antiosteoporotic, anti-inflammatory, cytotoxicity, and hypolipidemic activities. This review revealed that many active compounds are present in Nepenthes spp. However, many pharmacological screenings such as anticancer, antiviral, wound healing, antihelminthic, antidiarrheal properties, among others have not been carried out yet. Therefore, more biological investigations and phytochemical screenings are required to fully explore the genus Nepenthes which may lead to development of new therapeutic agents.  


Author(s):  
Jumardi Roslan ◽  
Hay Chye Ling ◽  
Mohd Dona Sintang ◽  
Suryani Saallah

Bambangan (Mangifera pajang Kosterm) is an indigenous fruit that can be found in Borneo Island including Sabah and Sarawak (Malaysia), Kalimantan (Indonesia), and Brunei. Besides being freshly eaten, the pulp of bambangan fruit can be processed for juice production to expand its market potential. During the processing of fruit juice, the application of heat treatment such as pasteurization and sterilization might influence their rheological behavior. Thus, the present study aims to investigate the effect of heat treatment on the rheological properties of bambangan fruit juice (BFJ). The freshly squeezed BFJ was subjected to different heat treatment conditions; sterilization (121°C, 3 minutes), mild temperature long time (MTLT) pasteurization (65°C, 15 minutes), and high temperature short time (HTST) pasteurization (90°C, 1 minute). Rheological analysis of the heat-treated BFJ was performed using a rheometer at a shear rate ranging from 1 to 250 s-1 and a temperature between 5 °C to 70 °C. Pasteurization at 90 °C for 1 minute (HTST) was found to be the most suitable heat treatment for the BFJ. At this condition, the BFJ exhibited a non-Newtonian pseudoplastic fluid behavior (n < 1), fitted well with the Herschel-Bulkey model. The value of parameters obtained from Herschel-Bulkley equation for HTST treatment of bambangan juice were n= 0.83, k= 0.32 and yield stress= 3.96. The viscosity values of HTST bambangan juice at the temperature of 5, 20, 40 and 70 °C were 3.53, 2.33, 1.53 and 1.76 Pa.s respectively. This rheological information is of fundamental importance in optimizing equipment design, process control, and sensory evaluation.


Wind vibration based energy harvester using piezoelectric material has been of great concern to researchers for a long time for low power generation and applications. In this paper, wind generated vibrations are used to develop electromechanical model of piezoelectric vibration energy harvester to generate electrical output using MATLAB simulink and comparision has been drawn between an electromechanical model of piezoelectric harvester interfaced with P&O MPPT based electrical model and without it. It has been found that overall model with MPPT provides high output with high efficiency


Author(s):  
Mohammad Mukim ◽  
Atul Kabra ◽  
Christophe Hano ◽  
Samantha Drouet ◽  
Duangjai Tungmunnithum ◽  
...  

Rivea hypocrateriformis (Desr.) Choisy is a robust woody climbing shrub of the genus Rivea which is found in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand. R. hypocrateriformis is a promising medicinal herb with enormous helpful and wellbeing advancing impacts. R. hypocrateriformis has been utilized as a customary medication for a long time to treat rheumatic pain, fever, urogenital problem, snake bite, cough, piles, malaria, and skin disease. Apart from the traditional uses its leaves and young shoots are cooked and eaten as a vegetable and for preparation of bread with millet flour. This review comprehensively summarizes the up-to-date information on the botanical characterization, distribution, traditional uses, phytochemistry, pharmacology and toxicity study of R. hypocrateriformis. Phytochemical investigation has been revealed that alkaloids, glycosides, coumarins, flavonoids, xanthones, stilbenes, and other organic compounds are contained in R. hypocrateriformis. Crude extracts and isolated compounds have exhibited numerous pharmacological activities such as anovulatory effect, antifertility activity, antiarthritic, antimicrobial, anticancer, antioxidant, hepatoprotective, antilithiatic, antimitotic. R. hypocrateriformis is a promising restorative spice with monstrous remedial and wellbeing advancing impacts. Along these lines, further investigations on the bioactive mixtures and systems of R. hypocrateriformis are justified. Extra clinical and toxicological examinations are expected to assess its wellbeing.


2015 ◽  
Vol 82 (4) ◽  
pp. 1136-1146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinlei Zhao ◽  
Andrew N. Binns

ABSTRACTMonosaccharides capable of serving as nutrients for the soil bacteriumAgrobacterium tumefaciensare also inducers of thevirregulon present in the tumor-inducing (Ti) plasmid of this plant pathogen. One such monosaccharide is galacturonate, the predominant monomer of pectin found in plant cell walls. This ligand is recognized by the periplasmic sugar binding protein ChvE, which interacts with the VirA histidine kinase that controlsvirgene expression. Although ChvE is also a member of the ChvE-MmsAB ABC transporter involved in the utilization of many neutral sugars, it is not involved in galacturonate utilization. In this study, a putative tripartite ATP-independent periplasmic (TRAP) transporter, GaaPQM, is shown to be essential for the utilization of galacturonic acid; we show that residue R169 in the predicted sugar binding site of the GaaP is required for activity. The gene upstream ofgaaPQM(gaaR) encodes a member of the GntR family of regulators. GaaR is shown to repress the expression ofgaaPQM, and the repression is relieved in the presence of the substrate for GaaPQM. Moreover, GaaR is shown to bind putative promoter regions in the sequences required for galacturonic acid utilization. Finally,A. tumefaciensstrains carrying a deletion ofgaaPQMare more sensitive to galacturonate as an inducer ofvirgene expression, while the overexpression ofgaaPQMresults in strains being less sensitive to thisvirinducer. This supports a model in which transporter activity is crucial in ensuring thatvirgene expression occurs only at sites of high ligand concentration, such as those at a plant wound site.


2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (10) ◽  
pp. 7706-7710
Author(s):  
Young Ho Seo ◽  
Eun Chang Choi ◽  
Byungyou Hong

Dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) is being extensively investigated as the next generation energy source. Despite of the attractive features like simple fabrication process and its economic efficiency, there are some problems such as low efficiency, long fabrication time and low long-term stability. Conventionally, the dye adsorption on TiO2 photo-electrode film needs long time in the solvent with low concentration of dye to get the high efficiency. In this work, the dye coating process was considerably shortened, albeit plenty of dye was used comparing with the conventional way. Our needs were met for the best result in our working environment and the relevant conditions to our work were obtained, which were the coating temperature of 70 °C, the dye concentration of 10 mM and the coating time of 3 min. And this coating process was successively repeated several times to maximize the dye adsorption and to improve the cell efficiency. Therefore, the efficiency increased by 13% in the proper condition.


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