Evaluation of some water-miscible organic solvents for spray-drying enzymes and carbohydrates

The spray-drying behaviour of 16 water-miscible organic solvents on a bench-scale machine (Büchi B290 with inert loop) was determined under mild-to-moderate process conditions, namely inlet gas temperature of 130?°C and liquid feed flow rate of ≤3?mL/min. The solvents with boiling points below the inlet gas temperature could be fully dried (Group 1 solvents). The two exceptions were DMSO and DMF which despite their higher boiling points could be fully dried. The remaining solvents with boiling points above the inlet gas temperature were not fully dried during passage through the spray-dryer (Group 2 solvents). Trypsin and lysozyme when spray-dried from Group 1 solvent binary mixtures with water showed similar inactivation and residual water content, independent of solvent. The level of residual solvent was, however, strongly dependent on solvent. Trehalose (20%) and mannitol (10%) could be spray-dried from DMSO/water binary mixtures, but the amorphous disaccharide required higher inlet gas temperature. Trehalose/trypsin and mannitol/trypsin formulations showed differing degrees of protection against enzyme inactivation when spray-dried from Group 1 solvent binary mixtures with water. In all solvents the mannitol protected as well, if not better, than the trehalose. This study identifies some suitable organic solvents for spray-drying protein formulations, but also shows the difficulties of remaining organic solvent under the moderate inlet gas temperature used.     

线性调节器盼抗干扰设计

本文给出了一种扰动情况下线性调节器的设计方法。主导思想是,在最优控制律中附加干扰成份,以抵消扰动信号的影响,使系统保持希望的平衡态,并在规定的性能指标下为最优。文中还给出了一个轧机控制系统的设计实例及仿真结果。     

Internetressourcen zu IT/Business Alignment

IT/Business Alignment IT/Business Alignment has become a key issue for many companies. Therefore a lot of companies, institutions and universities have published documents about this topic. This paper is intended to give an overview of these resources found in the Internet.

     

Regional brain electrical activity in posttraumatic stress disorder after motor vehicle accident.

This study examined whether patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related to motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) would show an abnormal pattern of electroencephalographic (EEG) alpha asymmetries, which has been proposed for particular types of anxiety. Patients with PTSD (n = 22) or subsyndromal PTSD (n = 21), traumatized controls without PTSD (non-PTSD with MVA; n = 21), and healthy controls without MVA (n = 23) underwent measurement of EEG activity during baseline and exposure to a neutral, a positive, a negative, and an accident-related picture. Differences in brain asymmetry between groups were observed only during exposure to trauma-related material. PTSD and subsyndromal PTSD patients showed a pattern of enhanced right anterior and posterior activation, whereas non-PTSD with MVA participants showed the opposite pattern. Furthermore, posterior asymmetry in nontraumatized healthy controls varied with gender, with female participants showing a pattern of higher right posterior activation. The results support the hypothesis that symptomatic MVA survivors are characterized by a pattern of right hemisphere activation that is associated with anxious arousal and symptoms of PTSD during processing of trauma-specific information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Abiotic transformation of toxaphene by superreduced vitamin B12 and dicyanocobinamide

Toxaphene is a complex organochlorine pesticide mixture, residues of which are widespread in the environment. Previous studies with the isolated bacterium Sulfurospirillum (formerly Dehalospirillum) multivorans resulted in an effective anaerobic biotransformation of toxaphene. Since the bacterium contains a corrinoid derivative in the active center of the tetrachloroethene dehalogenase, we attempted to use superreduced corrinoids for abiotic transformation of toxaphene. The two corrinoids studied were dicyanocobinamide and cyanocobalamin (vitamin B12). Superreduced dicyanocobinamide mediated a rapid transformation of toxaphene. More than 90% of the initial pool was transformed within 6 h. The transformation was nonselective, and even the most persistent metabolite in environmental samples, the so-called dead-end metabolite 2-exo,3-endo,6-exo,8,9,10-hexachlorobornane (B6-923 or Hx-Sed) was transformed within hours. Superreduced cyanocobalamin was also able to transform toxaphene albeit at significantly lower velocity. The lack of transformation products detectable in gas chromatograms of hexanes-extracted fractions of the assays suggests rapid, sequential dehalogenation and/or destruction of the C10-hydrocarbon backbone of the compounds of technical toxaphene.     

Sampling and quantifying invertebrates from drinking water distribution mains

Water utilities in the Netherlands aim at controlling the multiplication of (micro-) organisms by distributing biologically stable water through biologically stable materials. Disinfectant residuals are absent or very low. To be able to assess invertebrate abundance, methods for sampling and quantifying these animals from distribution mains were optimised and evaluated. The presented method for collecting invertebrates consists of unidirectionally flushing a mains section with a flow rate of 1 ms(-1) and filtering the flushed water in two separate flows with 500 microm and 100 microm mesh plankton gauze filters. Removal efficiency from mains was evaluated in nine experiments by collecting the invertebrates removed from the mains section by intensive cleaning immediately subsequent to sampling. Of 12 taxa distinguished, all except case-building Chironomidae larvae (2%) and Oligochaeta (30%) were removed well (51-75%). Retention of invertebrates in 100 microm filters was evaluated by filtering 39 filtrates using 30 microm filters. Except for flexible and small invertebrates such as Turbellaria (13%), Nematoda (11%) and Copepoda larvae (24%), most taxa were well retained in the 100 microm filters (53-100%). During sample processing, the method for taking sub-samples with a 10 ml pipette from the suspension of samples with high sediment concentrations was found to perform well in 75% of the samples. During a 2-year national survey in the Netherlands and consecutive investigations, the method appeared to be very suitable to assess the abundance of most invertebrate taxa in drinking water distribution systems and to be practicable for relatively inexperienced sampling and lab technicians. Although the numbers of small, less abundant or sessile taxa were not accurately assessed using the method, these taxa probably should not be the primary focus of monitoring by water utilities, as consumer complaints are not likely to be caused by these invertebrates. The accuracy of quantifying small invertebrates was further improved, however, by filtering the 100microm filtrate with a 30microm mesh plankton gauze filter.     

A robust optimisation model and cutting planes for the planning of energy-efficient wireless networks

In this paper, we present an optimisation model for the energy-efficient planning of future wireless networks. By applying robust optimisation, we extend this model to a robust formulation which considers demand uncertainties. The computability of the resulting model is moderate. Hence, we apply three different cutting plane approaches for an improvement. Furthermore, an extensive case study is performed to examine the price of robustness, to compare the robust solution to conventional planning, and to explore the performance of the cutting planes.