scholarly journals Enhancement of Hydrotropic Fractionation of Poplar Wood using Autohydrolysis and Disk Refining Pretreatment: Morphology and Overall Chemical Characterization

Polymers ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 685 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gu ◽  
Bian ◽  
Wei ◽  
Wang

Solid acids have been proposed as a hydrolytic agent for wood biomass dissolution. In this work, we presented an environmentally friendly physicochemical treatment to leave behind cellulose, dissolve hemicellulose, and remove lignin from poplar wood. Several pretreatments, such as autohydrolysis and disk refining, were compared to optimize and modify the process. The p-toluenesulfonic acid could extract lignin from wood with a small amount of cellulose degradation. Disk refining with subsequent acid hydrolysis (so-called physicochemical treatment) doubled the delignification efficiency. A comprehensive morphology and overall chemical composition were provided. The crystallinity index (CrI) of treated poplar was increased and the chemical structure was changed after physicochemical treatment. Optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy analysis demonstrated physicochemical treatment affected the morphology of poplar wood by removing lignin and generating fiberization. In general, this work demonstrated this physicochemical method could be a promising fractionation technology for lignocellulosic biomass due to its advantages, such as good selectivity, in removing lignin while preserving cellulose.

Author(s):  
J. P. Benedict ◽  
R. M. Anderson ◽  
S. J. Klepeis

Ion mills equipped with flood guns can perform two important functions in material analysis; they can either remove material or deposit material. The ion mill holder shown in Fig. 1 is used to remove material from the polished surface of a sample for further optical inspection or SEM ( Scanning Electron Microscopy ) analysis. The sample is attached to a pohshing stud type SEM mount and placed in the ion mill holder with the polished surface of the sample pointing straight up, as shown in Fig 2. As the holder is rotating in the ion mill, Argon ions from the flood gun are directed down at the top of the sample. The impact of Argon ions against the surface of the sample causes some of the surface material to leave the sample at a material dependent, nonuniform rate. As a result, the polished surface will begin to develop topography during milling as fast sputtering materials leave behind depressions in the polished surface.


2021 ◽  
pp. 232020682199798
Author(s):  
Beyza Unalan Degirmenci ◽  
Alperen Degirmenci ◽  
Emine Kara

Aim: Natural antioxidants were offered as the answer of dentin adhesion issue. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of proanthocyanidin and lycopene as pretreatment agents on the sound and caries-affected dentin surface on microtensile bond strength and microleakage. Materials and Methods: This study was designed as in vitro because of that 84 mandibular molar teeth were collected. Forty-two of the included teeth were carious teeth, while the other 42 were without caries. Sixty of them were used for microleakage and 24 for microtensile bond strength testing and scanning electron microscopy analysis. The samples were divided into six subgroups randomly according to dentin pretreatments: 5% proanthocyanidin, 5% lycopene, and no antioxidant application. After the restorative procedures, samples were attached to the microtensile tester. Samples were subjected to tensile stress in the load cell until they broke at a speed of 0.5 mm per min. Microtensile bond strength (µTBS) and microleakage test data were analyzed with two-way analysis of variance, Bonferroni correction, and Tamhane’s T2 tests. Results: Two-way variance analysis showed that dentin pretreatment applications, dentin substrate, and the interaction between these two parameters had statistically significant effects on µTBS values ( P < .001). There was no difference between dentin pretreatment applications in terms of microleakage scores ( P > .05). Conclusion: The application of dentin pretreatment with proanthocyanidin is a successful procedure that increases the bond strength in both dentin substrate, while pretreatment with lycopene in caries-affected dentin reduces it.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 686
Author(s):  
Raquel Porto ◽  
Ana C. Mengarda ◽  
Rayssa A. Cajas ◽  
Maria C. Salvadori ◽  
Fernanda S. Teixeira ◽  
...  

The intravascular parasitic worm Schistosoma mansoni is a causative agent of schistosomiasis, a disease of great global public health significance. Praziquantel is the only drug available to treat schistosomiasis and there is an urgent demand for new anthelmintic agents. Adopting a phenotypic drug screening strategy, here, we evaluated the antiparasitic properties of 46 commercially available cardiovascular drugs against S. mansoni. From these screenings, we found that amiodarone, telmisartan, propafenone, methyldopa, and doxazosin affected the viability of schistosomes in vitro, with effective concentrations of 50% (EC50) and 90% (EC90) values ranging from 8 to 50 µM. These results were further supported by scanning electron microscopy analysis. Subsequently, the most effective drug (amiodarone) was further tested in a murine model of schistosomiasis for both early and chronic S. mansoni infections using a single oral dose of 400 mg/kg or 100 mg/kg daily for five consecutive days. Amiodarone had a low efficacy in chronic infection, with the worm and egg burden reduction ranging from 10 to 30%. In contrast, amiodarone caused a significant reduction in worm and egg burden in early infection (>50%). Comparatively, treatment with amiodarone is more effective in early infection than praziquantel, demonstrating the potential role of this cardiovascular drug as an antischistosomal agent.


Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 2264
Author(s):  
Raphael H. M. Reis ◽  
Fabio C. Garcia Filho ◽  
Larissa F. Nunes ◽  
Veronica S. Candido ◽  
Alisson C. R. Silva ◽  
...  

Fibers extracted from Amazonian plants that have traditionally been used by local communities to produce simple items such as ropes, nets, and rugs, are now recognized as promising composite reinforcements. This is the case for guaruman (Ischinosiphon körn) fiber, which was recently found to present potential mechanical and ballistic properties as 30 vol% reinforcement of epoxy composites. To complement these properties, Izod impact tests are now communicated in this brief report for similar composites with up to 30 vol% of guaruman fibers. A substantial increase in impact resistance, with over than 20 times the absorbed energy for the 30 vol% guaruman fiber composite, was obtained in comparison to neat epoxy. These results were statistically validated by Weibull analysis, ANOVA, and Tukey’s test. Scanning electron microscopy analysis disclosed the mechanisms responsible for the impact performance of the guaruman fiber composites.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (S1) ◽  
pp. 3168-3170
Author(s):  
Hazel Jaynelle Morales-Rodriguez ◽  
Javier Camarillo-Cisneros ◽  
María Alejandra Favila-Pérez ◽  
Alva Rocío Castillo-González ◽  
Celia María Quiñonez-Flores ◽  
...  

2006 ◽  
Vol 12 (S02) ◽  
pp. 1270-1271
Author(s):  
M Olszta ◽  
J Dougherty ◽  
M Horn ◽  
EC Dickey

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2006 in Chicago, Illinois, USA, July 30 – August 3, 2005


2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Longyuan Hu ◽  
Jia Tan ◽  
Xiaomei Yang ◽  
Haitao Tan ◽  
Xiaozhen Xu ◽  
...  

This study aimed to determine the effect of topically appliedLaminariapolysaccharide (LP) on skin aging. We applied ointment containing LP (10, 25, and 50 μg/g) or vitamin E (10 μg/g) to the dorsal skin of aging mice for 12 months and young control mice for 4 weeks. Electron microscopy analysis of skin samples revealed that LP increased dermal thickness and skin collagen content. Tissue inhibitor of metalloprotease- (TIMP-) 1 expression was upregulated while that of matrix metalloproteinase- (MMP-) 1 was downregulated in skin tissue of LP-treated as compared to untreated aging mice. Additionally, phosphorylation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and p38 was higher in aging skin than in young skin, while LP treatment suppressed phospho-JNK expression. LP application also enhanced the expression of antioxidative enzymes in skin tissue, causing a decrease in malondialdehyde levels and increases in superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase levels relative to those in untreated aging mice. These results indicate that LP inhibits MMP-1 expression by preventing oxidative stress and JNK phosphorylation, thereby delaying skin collagen breakdown during aging.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 943
Author(s):  
Diletta Ami ◽  
Barbara Sciandrone ◽  
Paolo Mereghetti ◽  
Jacopo Falvo ◽  
Tiziano Catelani ◽  
...  

Amyloid aggregation of human ataxin-3 (ATX3) is responsible for spinocerebellar ataxia type 3, which belongs to the class of polyglutamine neurodegenerative disorders. It is widely accepted that the formation of toxic oligomeric species is primarily involved in the onset of the disease. For this reason, to understand the mechanisms underlying toxicity, we expressed both a physiological (ATX3-Q24) and a pathological ATX3 variant (ATX3-Q55) in a simplified cellular model, Escherichia coli. It has been observed that ATX3-Q55 expression induces a higher reduction of the cell growth compared to ATX3-Q24, due to the bacteriostatic effect of the toxic oligomeric species. Furthermore, the Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy investigation, supported by multivariate analysis, made it possible to monitor protein aggregation and the induced cell perturbations in intact cells. In particular, it has been found that the toxic oligomeric species associated with the expression of ATX3-Q55 are responsible for the main spectral changes, ascribable mainly to the cell envelope modifications. A structural alteration of the membrane detected through electron microscopy analysis in the strain expressing the pathological form supports the spectroscopic results.


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