Experimental Investigation of Unconfined Compression Strength and Microstructure Characteristics of Slag and Fly Ash-Based Geopolymer Stabilized Riverside Soft Soil

To solve the issues of insufficient early strength of cement stabilized soil and high resource cost, high reduction cost, and high environmental cost induced by the application of cement, the slag and fly ash-based geopolymer was adopted as the stabilizer to treat riverside soft soil. This study mainly investigated the effects of stabilizer content, slag-to-fly ash ratio, and alkaline activator content on the strength of geopolymer stabilized soils with different curing ages. Unconfined compressive strength (UCS), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and X-ray energy spectrum analysis (EDS) tests were carried out. The results show that the stabilizer content, slag–fly ash ratio, and alkaline activator content have a decisive influence on the UCS of geopolymer-stabilized soil. The mix-proportions scheme of geopolymer stabilized riverside soft soil, with a geopolymer content of 15%, a slag–fly ash ratio of 80:20, and an alkaline activator content of 30%, is considered optimum. It is proven by SEM that the uniformly distributed gelatinous products formed in the geopolymer-stabilized soil bind the soil particles tightly. Moreover, the EDS analysis confirms that the gelatinous products are mainly composed of C-S-H gel and sodium-based aluminosilicate (N-A-S-H).

Stresses Analysis of Roller Gear Drive

The roller worm gear drives have been widely adopted in numerous industrial applications such as robot joint reducer, heavy-duty production line. This study is to improve the performance of a roller gear drive by utilizing an iterative optimization scheme to improve the tooth profile of the hourglass worm gear in the roller gear drive. Dedicated design of the variable-pitch slot on the hourglass worm gear can remedy the power efficiency of the roller gear drive by enhancing the contact ratio dramatically. This research showed that the roller gear drive is a better mechanism for the high reduction ratio reducers. The CAD design and performance analysis of a roller gear drive by SolidWorks have provided the engineers an optimizing methodology.

Evaluation of Three Antimicrobial Peptides Mixtures to Control the Phytopathogen Responsible for Fire Blight Disease

Fire blight is a severe bacterial plant disease that affects important chain-of-value fruit trees such as pear and apple trees. This disease is caused by Erwinia amylovora, a quarantine phytopathogenic bacterium, which, although highly distributed worldwide, still lacks efficient control measures. The green revolution paradigm demands sustainable agriculture practices, for which antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have recently caught much attention. The goal of this work was to disclose the bioactivity of three peptides mixtures (BP100:RW-BP100, BP100:CA-M, and RW-BP100:CA-M), against three strains of E. amylovora representing distinct genotypes and virulence (LMG 2024, Ea 630 and Ea 680). The three AMPs’ mixtures were assayed at eight different equimolar concentrations ranging from 0.25 to 6 μM (1:1). Results showed MIC and MBC values between 2.5 and 4 μM for every AMP mixture and strain. Regarding cell viability, flow cytometry and alamarBlue reduction, showed high reduction (>25%) of viable cells after 30 min of AMP exposure, depending on the peptide mixture and strain assayed. Hypersensitive response in tobacco plants showed that the most efficient AMPs mixtures and concentrations caused low to no reaction of the plant. Altogether, the AMPs mixtures studied are better treatment solutions to control fire blight disease than the same AMPs applied individually.

Highly efficient and simultaneous catalytic reduction of multiple toxic dyes and nitrophenols waste water using highly active bimetallic PdO–NiO nanocomposite

Azo dyes and nitrophenols have been widely used in the various industry which are highly toxic and affecting the photosynthetic cycle of aquatic organism. The industry disposals increase the accumulation of azo compounds in the environment. In the present study, we synthesized the low cost, PdO-doped NiO hetero-mixture via simple hydrothermal combined calcination process. The morphology results proved that, the spherical PdO nanoparticles are evenly doped with NiO nanoparticles. The band gap values of metal oxides NiO, PdO and PdO–NiO composite were found to be 4.05 eV, 3.84 eV and 4.24 eV, respectively. The high optical bandgap (Eg) value for composite suggests that the PdO interface and NiO interface are closely combined in the composite. The catalytic activity of the PdO–NiO was analyzed for the reduction of different toxic azo compounds namely, 4-nitrophenol (NP), 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP), 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (TNP), methylene blue (MB), rhodamine B (RhB) and methyl orange (MO) separately and their mixture with the presence of a NaBH4. For the first time, the large volume of the toxic azo compounds was reduced into non-toxic compounds with high reduction rate. The proposed PdO–NiO catalyst exhibit excellent rate constant 0.1667, 0.0997, 0.0686 min−1 for NP, DNP and TNT and 0.099, 0.0416 and 0.0896 min−1 for MB, RhB and MO dyes respectively which is higher rate constant than the previously reported catalysts. Mainly, PdO–NiO completes the reduction of mixture of azo compounds within 8 min. Further, PdO–NiO exhibit stable reduction rate of azo compounds over five cycles with no significant loss. Hence, the proposed low cost and high efficient PdO–NiO catalyst could be the promising catalyst for degradation of azo compounds.

Wound bed preparation with hypochlorous acid oxidising solution and standard of care: a prospective case series

Objective: This prospective case series aims to evaluate the clinical impact of a hypochlorous acid oxidising solution (AOS) in association with usual standard of care (SoC) on wound bed preparation (WBP) in patients with hard-to-heal ulcers of various aetiologies. The AOS (Nexodyn, APR Applied Pharma Research S.A., Switzerland) comprises three main features: highly pure and stabilised hypochlorous acid, acidic pH and high reduction–oxidation potential. Method: Between February 2015 and February 2017, patients who met the inclusion criteria were treated with AOS and usual SoC. Data collection ran for 70 days: T0–T70. A baseline assessment was undertaken at T0; parameters assessed at fortnightly visits included: WBP score, area and depth of ulcer, duration, pain, Bates–Jensen score and infection status. Results: A total of 60 patients took part in the study. By T70, 68.3% of wounds had healed or improved and a significant wound size reduction of 21% was observed (p<0.001), despite a mean wound duration of 20.6 months. All wounds were free of local infection and cellulitis; 10% were colonised. WBP scores improved, while Bates–Jensen and pain scores fell significantly over time. Conclusion: This evaluation suggests that AOS might represent a valuable therapeutic addition for an optimal WBP in the routine management of hard-to-heal ulcers of different aetiologies. Declaration of interest: ER worked as a consultant for APR Applied Pharma Research S.A. The authors have no other conflicts of interest.

Hydrogen production via methane dry reforming process over CoAl and CoMgAl-Hydrotalcite derived catalysts

Co0.67Al0.31 and Co0.14Mg0.54Al0.31 hydrotalcite based catalysts were prepared by a co-precipitation method at a fixed pH=11, exhibiting a suitable hydrotalcite structure to be used as a catalyst in the reaction of the dry reforming of methane (DRM). Calcination at 450 °C provides the best conditions to prepare the most adapted structure and morphology to be later used in the DRM reaction. The samples were characterised by XRD, FTIR, SEM and it was shown that they exhibit a specific surface in the 30-70 g/cm2 and a crystallite size of approximately 20 nm. The results of the TPR analysis showed clearly that CoAl-HT has better catalytic performances than CoMgAl-HT. This result can be explained by the presence of the Co0 for the catalyst CoAl-HTc-R and the total absence in the sample CoMgAl-HTc-R. The solid CoMgAl-HTc-R requires high reduction temperature compared to CoAl-HTc-R due to the strong CoO-MgO interactions.

Field Investigation and Experimentation of Expansive Mortar in Dimension Stone Mining

Nature has blessed Pakistan with huge reserves of dimension stone that are mostly extracted through conventional mining methods. Different mechanized techniques have been tested and some give propitious results but failed to get popularity in the dimension stone sector of Pakistan. One such attempt is made in this work and a non-conventional method expansive mortar (EM) is introduce into this sector, to reduce the waste and cracks that are produced during conventional mining method (drilling and blasting). The results proclaim that expansive mortar efficiently reduced waste production and increased productivity. Through conventional method 470 MTs economical blocks were extracted from a block of 10758 cubic ft, earning $1121.95. In contrast, expansive mortar was applied to a block volume of 6750 cubic ft, in which economical blocks extracted were weighing 489 MTs, earning $5766.46. These encouraging figures replicate more than five-time increase in profit and high reduction in waste production.

Impact of Tellurite on the Metabolism of Paenibacillus pabuli AL109b With Flagellin Production Explaining High Reduction Capacity

Tellurium (Te) is a metalloid with scarce and scattered abundance but with an increased interest in human activity for its uses in emerging technologies. As is seen for other metals and metalloids, the result of mining activity and improper disposal of high-tech devices will lead to niches with increased abundance of Te. This metalloid will be more available to bacteria and represent an increasing selective pressure. This environmental problem may constitute an opportunity to search for microorganisms with genetic and molecular mechanisms of microbial resistance to Te toxic anions. Organisms from Te-contaminated niches could provide tools for Te remediation and fabrication of Te-containing structures with added value. The objective of this study was to determine the ability of a high metal-resistant Paenibacillus pabuli strain ALJ109b, isolated from high metal content mining residues, to reduce tellurite ion, and to evaluate the formation of metallic tellurium by cellular reduction, isolate the protein responsible, and determine the metabolic response to tellurite during growth. P. pabuli ALJ109b demonstrated to be resistant to Te (IV) at concentrations higher than reported for its genus. It can efficiently remove soluble Te (IV) from solution, over 20% in 8 h of growth, and reduce it to elemental Te, forming monodisperse nanostructures, verified by scattering electron microscopy. Cultivation of P. pabuli ALJ109b in the presence of Te (IV) affected the general protein expression pattern, and hence the metabolism, as demonstrated by high-throughput proteomic analysis. The Te (IV)-induced metabolic shift is characterized by an activation of ROS response. Flagellin from P. pabuli ALJ109b demonstrates high Te (0) forming activity in neutral to basic conditions in a range of temperatures from 20°C to 37°C. In conclusion, the first metabolic characterization of a strain of P. pabuli response to Te (IV) reveals a highly resistant strain with a unique Te (IV) proteomic response. This strain, and its flagellin, display, all the features of potential tools for Te nanoparticle production.