Towards the integration of dark- and photo-fermentative waste treatment. 2. Optimization of starch-dependent fermentative hydrogen production

Eight natural microbial consortia collected from different sites were tested for dark, hydrogen production during starch degradation. The most active consortium was from silo pit liquid under mesophilic (37 °C) conditions. The fermentation medium for this consortium was optimized (Fe, NH₄⁺, phosphates, peptone, and starch content) for both dark fermentation and for subsequent purple photosynthetic bacterial H₂ photoproduction [Laurinavichene TV, Tekucheva DN, Laurinavichius KS, Ghirardi ML, Seibert M, Tsygankov AA. Towards the integration of dark and photo fermentative waste treatment. 1. Hydrogen photoproduction by purple bacterium Rhodobacter capsulatus using potential products of starch fermentation. Int J Hydrogen Energy 2008;33(23):7020–26], in the presence of the spent dark, fermentation effluent. The addition of Zn (10 mg L⁻¹), as a methanogenesis inhibitor that does not inhibit purple bacteria at this concentration, also did not inhibit dark, fermentative H₂ production. The influence of various fermentation end products at different concentrations (up to 30 g L⁻¹) on dark, H₂ production was also examined. Added lactate stimulated, but added isobutyrate and butanol strongly inhibited gas production. Under optimal conditions the fermentation of starch (30 g L⁻¹) resulted in 5.7 L H₂ L⁻¹ of culture (1.6 mol H₂ per mole of hexose) with the co-production mainly of butyrate and acetate.     

Towards the integration of dark and photo fermentative waste treatment. 1. Hydrogen photoproduction by purple bacterium Rhodobacter capsulatus using potential products of starch fermentation

In this study, the H₂-photoproduction capacity of Rhodobacter capsulatus B10 was measured as a function of variations in the nature and concentration of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) and other products of dark fermentation. When an equimolar mixture of VFAs was provided, C4 substrates (butyrate and isobutyrate) were not consumed until the C2–C3 substrates (acetate, propionate, and lactate) became unavailable, but in order for the cells to produce H₂ at high rates they could not be exposed to severe growth substrate depletion. Among other possible fermentation products, the highest inhibition was observed by the addition of butanol (50% inhibition at 50 mM). The influence of high concentrations of VFAs, phosphate (used to stabilize the pH during dark fermentation) and some heavy metals (known inhibitors of methanogenesis) was also shown. Based on the results, the conditions of fermentation can be manipulated to avoid the inhibition of subsequent H₂ photoproduction by photosynthetic bacteria.     

Application of predictive control methods for Radio telescope disk rotation control

Radio telescope (RT) installations are highly valuable assets and during the period of their service life they need regular repair and maintenance to be carried out for delivering satisfactory performance and minimizing downtime. Same down time can be expected during machinery usage. Constant control of telescope rotation angle is done manually using visual inspection of hardware. The accuracy of this procedure is very low, therefore, automation and computer control systems are required. With the growing automation technologies, predictive control can prove to be a better approach than the traditionally applied visual inspection policy and linear control models. In this paper, Irbene Radio telescope RT-16 disk rotation control motors are analysed using control voltage from the converters. Retrieved data from the small DC motor is used for the predictive control approach using two different methods: a neural network trained with Basic Levenberg-Marquardt method and a linear model. A multilayer perceptron network approach is used for prediction of the indicator voltage output which affects the monitoring of the disk rotating angle. Finally, an experimental control system was proposed and installed using National Instruments equipment.     

Atomic layer deposition of aluminum oxide films for carbon nanotube network transistor passivation

Ultra-thin (2-5 nm thick) aluminum oxide layers were grown on non-functionalized individual single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) and their bundles by atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique in order to investigate the mechanism of the coating process. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to examine the uniformity and conformality of the coatings grown at different temperatures (80 degrees C or 220 degrees C) and with different precursors for oxidation (water and ozone). We found that bundles of SWCNTs were coated continuously, but at the same time, bare individual nanotubes remained uncoated. The successful coating of bundles was explained by the formation of interstitial pores between the individual SWCNTs constituting the bundle, where the precursor molecules can adhere, initiating the layer growth. Thicker alumina layers (20-35 nm thick) were used for the coating of bottom-gated SWCNT-network based field effect transistors (FETs). ALD layers, grown at different conditions, were found to influence the performance of the SWCNT-network FETs: low temperature ALD layers caused the ambipolarity of the channel and pronounced n-type conduction, whereas high temperature ALD processes resulted in hysteresis suppression in the transfer characteristics of the SWCNT transistors and preserved p-type conduction. Fixed charges in the ALD layer have been considered as the main factor influencing the conduction change of the SWCNT network based transistors.     

Quality evaluation of the appearance of virtual close-fitting woven garments

The goal of this research was to investigate the quality of the appearance of close-fitting virtual garment with respect to textile materials’ mechanical (tensile, bending, shear and surface) properties. During the research, the panel of experienced experts was rating visual quality of virtual dresses which were simulated with the help of Modaris 3D Fit (Lectra) software. The objects of the investigations were 100% cotton and cotton-blended woven fabrics. Mechanical properties were defined by Kawabata Measurement System, main part of which is based on uniaxial testing. Mannequin of standard size 164–92–96 was covered with close-fitting virtual dress. The fit evaluation of virtual garment was performed on the basis of local tensile strains at 11 points in warp, weft and bias directions. Simulation results of close-fitted garment showed that mechanical characteristics of selected materials effect strain distribution and the quality of garment appearance. It was defined that tensile properties (tensile strain and tensile energy) of textile materials in weft direction had the strongest effect.     

Melatonin and Glycine Reduce Uterus Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury in a Rat Model of Warm Ischemia

Ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI) remains a significant problem to be solved in uterus transplantation (UTx). Melatonin and glycine have been shown to possess direct cytoprotective activities, mainly due to their antioxidative and anti-inflammatory properties. The aim of this study was to investigate the protective effects of melatonin and glycine and their combination on IRI in a rat model of warm ischemia. In this study, Sprague-Dawley rats were assigned to eight groups, including sham and IRI (n = 80). Melatonin and glycine alone or their combination were administered prior to 1 h of uterus ischemia followed by 1 h of reperfusion. Melatonin (50 mg/kg) was administered via gavage 2 h before IRI and glycine in an enriched diet for 5 days prior to intervention. Uterus IRI was estimated by histology, including immunohistochemistry, and biochemical tissue analyses. Histology revealed that uterus IRI was significantly attenuated by pretreatment with melatonin (p = 0.019) and glycine (p = 0.044) alone as well as their combination (p = 0.003). Uterus IRI led to increased myeloperoxidase expression, which was significantly reduced by melatonin (p = 0.004), glycine (p < 0.001) or their combination (p < 0.001). The decline in superoxide dismutase activity was significantly reduced in the melatonin (p = 0.027), glycine (p = 0.038) and combined treatment groups (p = 0.015) when compared to the IRI control group. In conclusion, melatonin, glycine and their combination significantly reduced oxidative stress-induced cell damage after IRI in a small animal warm ischemia model, and, therefore, clinical studies are required to evaluate the protective effects of these well-characterized substances in uterus IRI.     

The impact of Al2O3 amount on the synthesis of CASH samples and their influence on the early stage hydration of calcium aluminate cement

In this work the impact of Al₂O₃ amount on the synthesis (200?°C; 4–8?h) of calcium aluminium silicate hydrates (CSAH) samples and their influence on the early stage hydration of calcium aluminate cement (CAC) was examined. It was found that the amount of Al₂O₃ plays an important role in the formation of calcium aluminate hydrates (CAH) because in the mixtures with 2.7% Al₂O₃ only calcium silicate hydrates (CSH) intercalated with Al³⁺ ions were formed. While in the mixtures with a higher amount of Al₂O₃ (5.3–15.4%), calcium aluminate hydrate – C₃AH₆, is formed under all experimental conditions. It is worth noting that the largest quantity of mentioned compound was obtained after 4?h of hydrothermal treatment, in the mixtures with 15.4% of Al₂O₃. It was proved that synthesized C₃AH₆ remain stable up to 300?°C and at higher temperature (945?°C) recrystallized to mayenite (Ca₁₂Al₁₄O₃₃), which reacted with the rest part of CaO and amorphous structure compound, resulting in the formation of gehlenite (Ca₂Al₂SiO₇). Moreover, the synthesized C₃AH₆ addition induced the early stage of CAC hydration. Besides, in the samples with an addition, the induction period was effectively shortened: in a case of pure CAC (G70) paste, hydration takes about 6–6.5?h, while with addition – only 2–2.5?h. The synthesized and calcinated compounds was characterized by using XRD and STA analysis.     

Functional fault models for non-scan sequential circuits

The paper presents two functional fault models that are applied for functional delay test generation for non-scan synchronous sequential circuits: the pin pair state (PPS) fault model and the pin pair full state (PPFS) fault model. The PPS fault model deals with the pairs of stuck-at faults on the primary inputs and the primary outputs, as well as, with the pairs of stuck-at faults on the previous state bits and the primary outputs. The PPFS fault model encompasses the PPS model, and additionally deals with the pairs of stuck-at faults on the primary inputs and the next state bits, as well as, with the pairs of stuck-at faults on the previous state bits and the next state bits. The main factor in assessing the quality of obtained test sequences was the transition fault coverage at the gate level of the selected according to the appropriate fault model test sequences from the generated randomly ones. The experimental results demonstrate that the implementation using presented functional fault models allow selecting the test sequences from the initial test set without the loss of transition fault coverage in many cases, and the number of the selected test sequences is much lesser than that of the initial test set. This result demonstrates that the functional delay test can be generated using the presented functional delay fault models before structural synthesis of the circuit.     

Integration of purple non-sulfur bacteria into the starch-hydrolyzing consortium

Purple non-sulfur bacteria Rhodobacter sphaeroides N7 was integrated into the heterotrophic starch-hydrolyzing consortium containing Clostridium butyricum as the main component. The resulting light-dependent consortium with Bchl ∼9 μg/ml was maintained during 12 months of regular transfers. The protein content in this consortium was four-fold higher compared to the heterotrophic consortium, suggesting that purple bacteria became its important component. Under illumination, the starch hydrolysis by the light-dependent consortium (as opposed to heterotrophic consortium) resulted in the absence of VFAs, hydrogen production being quite similar and residual hexose higher. Fermentation of glucose (unlike to starch) by the light-dependent consortium or Rb. sphaeroides alone resulted in ∼3 fold increase of hydrogen production compared to the heterotrophic consortium. Apparently, hydrolysis of starch to hexose was the bottleneck in H₂ photoproduction by the light-dependent consortium. Availability of residual hexose after photofermentation of starch/glucose by the light-dependent consortium or Rb. sphaeroides is discussed.     

The four-particle harmonic-oscillator brackets: Compact expressions and updated Fortran program

We present a new version of the four-particle harmonic-oscillator transformation brackets (4HOB) calculation program, where marginal cases of mass-ratio parameters d=0, d→∞ and d₁=0, which cannot be calculated in previous version, are presented. The simplified 4HOB calculation formulas for these cases are given.

Program summary

Program title: HOTBCatalogue identifier: AEFQ_v2_0Program summary URL:http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEFQ_v2_0.htmlProgram obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen?s University, Belfast, N. IrelandLicensing provisions: Standard CPC license, http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/licence/licence.htmlNo. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 3998No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 65 088Distribution format: tar.gzProgramming language: Fortran 90Computer: Any computer with FORTRAN 90 compilerOperating system: Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, True64 UnixRAM: 8 MBClassification: 17.17Catalogue identifier of previous version: AEFQ_v1_0Journal reference of previous version: Comput. Phys. Comm. 181 (2010) 420Does the new version supersede the previous version?: YesNature of problem: Calculation of the four-particle harmonic-oscillator transformation brackets for cases of mass-ratio parameters d=0, d→∞ and d₁=0.Solution method: The method is based on compact expressions of the four-particle harmonics oscillator brackets, presented in [1] and its simplifications presented in this paper.Reasons for new version: We simplified the four-particle harmonic-oscillator transformation brackets expressions in cases d=0, d→∞ and d₁=0. It gives shorter calculation times and the possibility of calculating the four-particle harmonics oscillator brackets in these cases, which was not possible in the previous version of the program.Summary of revisions: New subroutines for the calculation of the harmonic-oscillator transformation brackets in cases d=0, d→∞ and d₁=0. In case d=0 subroutine HOB4_d_0(e1, l1, e2, l2, l12, e3, l3, e1s, l1s, e2s, l2s, l12s, e3s, l3s, l) is used. In this case and . In case d→∞ subroutine HOB4_d_infinity(e1, l1, e2, l2, l12, e3, l3, e1s, l1s, e2s, l2s, l12s, e3s, l3s, l) is used. In this case and . In case d₁=0 subroutine HOB4_d1_0(e1, l1, e2, l2, l12, e3, l3, e1s, l1s, e2s, l2s, l12s, e3s, l3s, l) is used. For theoretical issues of the revision see section ‘Theoretical aspects’.Restrictions: The four-particle harmonic-oscillator transformation brackets up to e=28.Running time: Less than one second for the single harmonic-oscillator transformation bracket.References:

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  [1] D. Germanas, S. Mickevi?ius, R.K. Kalinauskas, Calculation of four-particle harmonic-oscillator transformation brackets, Computer Physics Communications 181 (2010) 420-425.