Hyaluronic Acid Allows Enzyme Immobilization for Applications in Biomedicine

Enzymes are proteins that control the efficiency and effectiveness of biological reactions and systems, as well as of engineered biomimetic processes. This review highlights current applications of a diverse range of enzymes for biofuel production, plastics, and chemical waste management, as well as for detergent, textile, and food production and preservation industries respectively. Challenges regarding the transposition of enzymes from their natural purpose and environment into synthetic practice are discussed. For example, temperature and pH-induced enzyme fragilities, short shelf life, low-cost efficiency, poor user-controllability, and subsequently insufficient catalytic activity were shown to decrease pertinence and profitability in large-scale production considerations. Enzyme immobilization was shown to improve and expand upon enzyme usage within a profit and impact-oriented commercial world and through enzyme-material and interfaces integration. With particular focus on the growing biomedical market, examples of enzyme immobilization within or onto hyaluronic acid (HA)-based complexes are discussed as a definable way to improve upon and/or make possible the next generation of medical undertakings. As a polysaccharide formed in every living organism, HA has proven beneficial in biomedicine for its high biocompatibility and controllable biodegradability, viscoelasticity, and hydrophilicity. Complexes developed with this molecule have been utilized to selectively deliver drugs to a desired location and at a desired rate, improve the efficiency of tissue regeneration, and serve as a viable platform for biologically accepted sensors. In similar realms of enzyme immobilization, HA’s ease in crosslinking allows the molecule to user-controllably enhance the design of a given platform in terms of both chemical and physical characteristics to thus best support successful and sustained enzyme usage. Such examples do not only demonstrate the potential of enzyme-based applications but further, emphasize future market trends and accountability.

Pengaruh Berat Karbon Aktif Kulit Jagung terhadap Penurunan COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) Limbah Cair Industri Batik

Background: The batik industry produces chemical waste with a COD value of 1918 mg/l; (above the safe threshold of 150 mg/l). One of the wastewater treatment methods is using activated carbon, including corn husks. This study aims to determine the effect of the weight of corn husk activated carbon on the reduction of COD in batik industrial wastewater. Methods: A quasi-experimental study with a non-randomized pretest-posttest control group design using liquid waste from one of the batik industries in Rejomulyo Village, East Semarang District. This experiment applied five weight variations of corn husk activated carbon, namely 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 grams with 4 repetitions, and 4 control samples. The effect of the treatment was observed in 50 minutes. The observations were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis statistical test. Results: The range and mean COD values before and after treatment were 3174.32 -5136.43 mg/l, and 584.29 - 1049.20 mg/l, respectively. The decrease in COD according to treatment ranged from 80.83% to 84.76%, while in the control group it was only 2.90%. There was an effect of the weight of corn husk activated carbon to decrease COD of batik industrial wastewater (p = 0.015), and there was an effect of the weight of corn husk activated carbon to decrease COD of batik industrial wastewater between control group and treatment group (p = 0.021). Conclusion: Corn husk activated carbon has a high potential to reduce the COD of chemical waste in the batik industry.

CHARACTERISATION OF A MEMBER OF THE GENUS CELLULOSIMICROBIUM AS A DEGRADER OF 2,4-DICHLOROPHENOXYACETIC ACID

On the basis of the cultural, morphological, physiological and biochemical features, the taxonomic position of the NPZ-121 strain (isolated from the soil contaminated with chemical waste in Ufa (Russia)) as belonging to the species Cellulosimicrobium funkei was specified. In a batch culture the dynamics of growth of the strain C. funkei NPZ-121 and utilization of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid at a concentration of 100 mg/l were described. For 11 days the culture used up to 69% of the substrate from the initial value. The ability of the strain to metabolize 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T) was revealed previously. Thus, the polysubstrate activity to chlorinated phenoxyacetic acids of the NPZ-121 strain was established.

Activated Carbons Obtained from Orange Peels, Coffee Grounds, and Sunflower Husks—Comparison of Physicochemical Properties and Activity in the Alpha-Pinene Isomerization Process

This work presents studies on the preparation of porous carbon materials from waste biomass in the form of orange peels, coffee grounds, and sunflower seed husks. The preparation of activated carbons from these three waste materials involved activation with KOH followed by carbonization at 800 °C in an N2 atmosphere. This way of obtaining the activated carbons is very simple and requires the application of only two reactants. Thus, this method is cheap, and it does not generate much chemical waste. The obtained activated carbons were characterized by XRD, SEM, XPS, and XRF methods. Moreover, the textural properties, acidity, and catalytic activity of these materials were descried. During catalytic tests carried out in the alpha-pinene isomerization process (the use of the activated carbons thus obtained in the process of alpha-pinene isomerization has not been described so far), the most active were activated carbons obtained from coffee grounds and orange peels. Generally, the catalytic activity of the obtained materials depended on the pore size, and the most active activated carbons had more pores with sizes of 0.7–1.0 and 1.1–1.4 nm. Moreover, the presence of potassium and chlorine ions in the pores may also be of key importance for the alpha-pinene isomerization process. On the other hand, the acidity of the surface of the tested active carbons did not affect their catalytic activity. The most favorable conditions for carrying out the alpha-pinene isomerization process were the same for the three tested activated carbons: temperature 160 °C, amount of the catalyst 5 wt.%, and reaction time 3 h. Kinetic studies were also carried out for the three tested catalysts. These studies showed that the isomerization over activated carbons from orange peels, coffee grounds, and sunflower seed husks is a first-order reaction.

Programmable droplet manipulation and wetting with soft magnetic carpets

The ability to regulate interfacial and wetting properties is highly demanded in anti-icing, anti-biofouling, and medical and energy applications. Recent work on liquid-infused systems achieved switching wetting properties, which allow us to turn between slip and pin states. However, patterning the wetting of surfaces in a dynamic fashion still remains a challenge. In this work, we use programmable wetting to activate and propel droplets over large distances. We achieve this with liquid-infused soft magnetic carpets (SMCs) that consist of pillars that are responsive to external magnetic stimuli. Liquid-infused SMCs, which are sticky for a water droplet, become slippery upon application of a magnetic field. Application of a patterned magnetic field results in a patterned wetting on the SMC. A traveling magnetic field wave translates the patterned wetting on the substrate, which allows droplet manipulation. The droplet speed increases with an increased contact angle and with the droplet size, which offers a potential method to sort and separate droplets with respect to their contact angle or size. Furthermore, programmable control of the droplet allows us to conduct reactions by combining droplets loaded with reagents. Such an ability of conducting small-scale reactions on SMCs has the potential to be used for automated analytical testing, diagnostics, and screening, with a potential to reduce the chemical waste.

Utilisation of Machine Learning Techniques in Testing and Training of Different Medical Datasets

On our planet, chemical waste increases day after day, the emergence of new types of it, as well as the high level of toxic pollution, the difficulty of daily life, the increase in the psychological state of humans, and other factors all have led to the emergence of many diseases that affect humans, including deadly once like COVID-19 disease. Symptoms may appear on a person, and sometimes they may not; some people may know their condition, and others may neglect their health status due to lack of knowledge that may lead to death, or the disease may be chronic for life. In this regard, the author executes machine learning techniques (Support Vector Machine, C5.0 Decision Tree, K-Nearest Neighbours, and Random Forest) due to their influence in medical sciences to identify the best technique that gives the highest level of accuracy in detecting diseases. Thus, this technique will help to recognise symptoms and diagnose them correctly. This article covers a dataset from the UCI machine learning repository, namely the Wisconsin Breast Cancer dataset, Chronic Kidney disease dataset, Immunotherapy dataset, Cryotherapy dataset, Hepatitis dataset and COVID-19 dataset. In the results section, a comparison is made between the execution of each technique to find out which one is the best and which one is the worst in the performance of analysis related to the dataset of each disease.

Cyanobacteria as Valuable Tool in Biotechnology

Cyanobacteria constitute an interesting group of photosynthetic microorganisms due to their morphological and genetic diversity that is related to their extremely long evolution process, which created the need for them to adapt to immensely heterogeneous environmental conditions. Cyanobacteria grow in salt and fresh waters as well as on the surface of soils and rocks. The diverse cell structure is characterized by the fact that they occur in many morphological forms, from small single cells through to larger ones as well as branches, threads, or spirals. Taking into account the presence of cyanobacteria in virtually all possible conditions and places on Earth, cyanobacteria represent an unexplored potential that is worth investigating. This review presents the possibilities of using algae in chosen areas of biotechnology: e.g., as biocatalysts or in industries such as the pharmaceutical industry. It covers the characteristics of secondary metabolites along with their division and the potential of using them as sources of effective drugs for many diseases. It presents an overview of the possibilities of using cyanobacteria in biotransformation processes. These processes are of great importance in the case of, for example, the neutralization of municipal, industrial, or chemical waste, the amount of which is constantly growing every year, and they are also an easier and cheaper path to obtain chemical compounds.

Study of Thermodynamic Modeling of Isothermal and Isobaric Binary Mixtures in Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium (VLE) of Tetrahydrofuran with Benzene (303.15 K) Cyclohexane (333.15 K), Methanol (103 kPa), and Ethanol (100 kPa)

Tetrahydrofuran (THF) is an aprotic solvent with multiple applications in diverse areas of chemical, petrochemical, and pharmaceutical industries with an important impact in chemical waste liquid with other solvents. In this work, 51 available VLE data, for isothermal binary mixtures of THF(1) + Benzene(2) and THF(1) + Cyclohexane(2) at 303.15 and 333.15 K, respectively, and isobaric THF(1) + Methanol(2) at 103 kPa and THF(1) + Ethanol(2) at 100 kPa were used in the development of the activity coefficient models. The quality of experimental data was checked using the Herington test. VLE binary data was correlated with models Wilson, NRTL UNIQUAC, and UNIFAC to obtain binary parameters and activity coefficients. The best thermodynamic consistency when conducting the Herington test for the VLE data was found for the THF(1) +Cyclohexane(2) isothermal system and THF(1) + Ethanol(2) isobaric system. The UNIQUAC model for isothermal systems THF(1) + Benzene(2) and THF(1) + Cyclohexane(2), the NRTL model for the isobaric system THF(1) + Methanol(2), and the UNIQUAC model for THF(1) + Ethanol(2) perform better than the other models.

The Electronics Industry and Their Chemical Effects in the Environment of Arid Regions of Northwest of Mexico

The electronics industry is very important in the world economy, because is one of more dynamic activities, due to a great quantity and different electronic products manufactured and used in a lot quotidian operations. This type of industry has strongly attracted attention to the environmental authorities in the recent 10 years, due to the deterioration that causes to the ecosystems. The electronics industry generates a lot liquid chemical waste, which are thrown into soils and aquifers that are close to companies. The interest of the relation of environmental problems and the electronics industry has manifested with more frequency, from 20 years ago, especially in countries that regulate strictly to care the ecosystems, being some countries of Europe, United States and Japan. The lack of control in certain liquid wastes from activities of the electronics industry, that are discharged into areas next to companies or by the drainage systems has caused a great deterioration of the ecosystems. This occurs with some companies installed in the Mexicali city dedicated to manufacture electronic products. This city is located in the northwest of Mexico that is a border city with the United States of America (USA), where some soils and aquifers are been damaged for some years. This has negative effects in the population too, by the generation and proliferation of respiratory diseases (RD), being a beginning of some environmental and health crisis, particularly in areas adjacent to these companies. This study examined the environmental problems of the industry electronics in Mexicali, and the increase of persons that suffer of RD, being principally in the winter periods. The analysis was made based in two steps, being the first to evaluate the pollution of soil and water levels with the principal climatic factors as relative humidity (RH) and temperature variations around two companies of the electronics sector to be correlated with the RD levels. The second step was to analyze the pH of soil and water, around the three companies evaluated in this city and to elaborate an evaluation of soils with the Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) technique to know their level of deterioration. The study was made from 2018 to 2019.