Conversion of Full-Scale Wet Scrubbers to Biotrickling Filters for H2S Control at Publicly Owned Treatment Works

Until recently, biological treatment of odors in biofilters or biotrickling filters was thought to require a longer gas contact time than chemical scrubbing, hence bioreactors for air treatment required a larger footprint. This paper discusses the conversion of chemical scrubbers to biological trickling filters. Initially, research was conducted with a laboratory-scale biotrickling filter. An effective open-pore polyurethane packing material was identified and H2S biotreatment performance was quantified. Key technical issues in determining the general suitability of converting wet scrubbers to biotrickling filters were identified, and a generic ten-step conversion procedure was developed. Following the laboratory research, five full-scale chemical scrubbers treating odorous air at the Sanitation District of Orange County, Calif., were converted to biotrickling filters. The original airflow rate was maintained, resulting in a gas contact time as low as 1.6–3.1?s. The converted biotrickling filters demonstrated an excellent capability for treating high H2S concentrations to concentrations below regulatory limits. This study shows outstanding potential for converting chemical scrubbers to biotrickling filters at publicly owned treatment works.     

Towards Pseudonymous e-Commerce

The lack of privacy is one of the main reasons that limits trust in e-commerce. Current e-commerce practice enforces a customer to disclose her identity to the e-shop and the use of credit cards makes it straightforward for an e-shop to know the real identity of its customers. Although there are some payment systems based on untraceable tokens, they are not as widely used as credit cards. Furthermore, even without buying anything, a customer is already disclosing some information about who or where she may be by just connecting to the e-shop's web server and leaving behind an IP-address. In this paper, we present novel components that enable secure pseudonymous e-commerce. On the one hand, these components allow a customer to browse through an e-shop, select goods, and pay the goods with her credit card such that neither the e-shop operator nor the credit card issuer nor an eavesdropper is able to get any information about the customer's identity. On the other hand, it is guaranteed that none of the involved parties is able to act dishonestly during the credit card payment. Such a system could greatly enhance trust in e-commerce since it overcomes the customers' privacy concerns.     

Sensitivity Analysis for Scheduling Problems

This paper represents a first attempt at a systematic study of sensitivity analysis for scheduling problems. Because schedules contain both combinatorial and temporal structures, scheduling problems present unique issues for sensitivity analysis. Some of the issues that we discuss have not been considered before. Others, while studied before, have not been explored in the context of scheduling. The applicability of these issues is illustrated using well-known scheduling models. We provide fast methods to determine when a previously optimal schedule remains optimal. Other methods restore an optimal schedule after a parameter change. The value of studying the sensitivity of an optimal sequence instead of the sensitivity of an optimal schedule is demonstrated. We show that, for some problems, sensitivity analysis results depend on the positions of jobs with changed parameters. We identify scheduling problems where performing additional or different computations during optimization facilitates sensitivity analysis. To improve the robustness of an optimal schedule, selection among multiple optimal schedules is considered. We discuss which types of sensitivity analysis questions are intractable because the scheduling problem itself is intractable. We also study how heuristic error bounds vary when the data of a scheduling problem is continuously modified. Although we focus on scheduling problems, several of the issues we discuss and our classification scheme can be extended to other optimization problems.     

Sensitivity of CFP/YFP and GFP/mCherry pairs to donor photobleaching on FRET determination by fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy in living cells

Fluorescent protein-based FRET is a powerful method for visualizing protein-protein interactions and biochemical reactions in living cells. It can be difficult, however, to avoid photobleaching when observing fluorescent cells under the microscope, especially those expressing CFP. We compared the sensitivity of two protein-based FRET pairs to light-induced fluorescence changes in the donor, on FRET determination by fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM). Thanks to the very low excitation light levels of the time- and space-correlated single photon counting (TSCSPC) method, FLIM acquisitions were achieved without donor photobleaching. Here, we show that photobleaching of CFP by a mercury lamp under the microscope induced a decrease in the mean fluorescence lifetime, which interfered with FRET determination between CFP and YFP. Importantly, the range of light-induced variation of the mean fluorescence lifetime of CFP was not proportional to the decrease in the steady state fluorescence intensity and varied from cell to cell. The choice of the CFP/YFP pair therefore requires that the cells be observed and analyzed at very low light levels during the whole FRET experiment. In contrast, the GFP/mCherry pair provided an accurate FRET measurement by FLIM, even if some GFP photobleaching took place. We thus demonstrate that CFP can be an unreliable donor for FRET determination in living cells, due to its photosensitivity properties. We demonstrate that the GFP/mCherry pair is better suited for FRET measurement by FLIM in living cells than the CFP/YFP pair.     

Morphological and chemical studies of pathological human and mice brain at the subcellular level: correlation between light, electron, and nanosims microscopies

Neurodegenerative diseases induce morphological and chemical alterations in well-characterized regions of the brain. Understanding their pathological processes requires the use of methods that assess both morphological and chemical alterations in the tissues. In the past, microprobe approaches such as scanning electron microscopy combined with an X-ray spectrometer, Proton induced X-ray emission, secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), and laser microprobe mass analysis have been used for the study of pathological human brain with limited success. At the present, new SIMS instruments have been developed, such as the NanoSIMS-50 ion microprobe, that allow the simultaneous identification of five elements with high sensitivity, at subcellular spatial resolution (about 50-100 nm with the Cs(+) source and about 150-200 nm with O(-) source). Working in scanning mode, 2D distribution of five elements (elemental maps) can be obtained, thus providing their exact colocalization. The analysis can be performed on semithin or ultrathin embedded sections. The possibility of using transmission electron microscopy and SIMS on the same ultrathin sections allows the correlation between structural and analytical observations at subcellular and ultrastructural level to be established. Our observations on pathological brain areas allow us to establish that the NanoSIMS-50 ion microprobe is a highly useful instrument for the imaging of the morphological and chemical alterations that take place in these brain areas. In the human brain our results put forward the subcellular distribution of iron-ferritin-hemosiderin in the hippocampus of Alzheimer disease patients. In the thalamus of transgenic mice, our results have shown the presence of Ca-Fe mineralized amyloid deposits.     

Functionalizable composite nanoparticles as a dual magnetic resonance imaging/computed tomography contrast agent for medical imaging

A dual contrast agent for computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was synthesized via microemulsion polymerization. This contrast agent consists of Fe₃O₄ particles (d = 7 nm) with an iodine-carrying nanopolymeric shell, with overall particle sizes ranging from 50 to 250 nm. 2-Methacryloyloxyethyl(2,3,5-triiodobenzoate) was used as the monomer. Sodium oleate was used as the surfactant and its amount was varied to control the overall particle size. The composite nanoparticles were mainly characterized via dynamic light scattering, with further analyses using transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The particles provided a highly visible contrast in CT and MR images. A template for biomedical applications was created by adding a comonomer and the particles were further functionalized with the somatostatin analogue Tyr³-octreotate. The particles were tested for specific uptake into somatostatin receptor-positive AR42J cells. The additional uptake of the functionalized particles was investigated. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47571.     

Some natural flavonoids are competitive inhibitors of Caspase-1, -3 and -7 despite their cellular toxicity

A common feature of both apoptosis and inflammation is the activation of caspases. Caspases are aspartate-directed cysteine proteases that have numerous cellular targets. It has been discovered that several flavonoids are inhibitors of caspases. Flavonoids are members of a family of polyphenolic compounds from plants that have many biological properties, one of which is the ability to induce cell death. Some flavonoids are selective inhibitors of particular caspases. Since some of the inhibitory flavonoids are nevertheless cytotoxic, these results suggest that flavonoid-induced cell death may be occurring through a non-classical apoptosis pathway that is not dependent on caspase activity.