Toxicity and mutagenicity assessment of a boron mine drainage water

This study was aimed to assess toxicity of boron mine drainage (BMD) water in K?rka borough of Turkey, which is one of the most important boron deposit sites in the world. Three complementary tests were done to assess the toxicity of BMD water. Root growth inhibition tests showed that EC₅₀ value of BMD water sample was approximately 3.85% of concentration. Furthermore, mutagenicity was analysed utilising Ames Salmonella Mutagenicity Test and Muta‐ChromoPlate kit system (Environmental Biodetection Products Inc., Ontario, Canada). Salmonella typhimurium TA 98 strain for all concentrations and Salmonella typhimurium TA100 strain for the highest concentrations of BMD water in the absence of metabolic activation significantly stimulated mutagenic activity and increased the numbers of revertant colonies for several concentrations compared to spontaneous revertant colonies. RAPD‐PCR result and the polymorphism percentage proved that the effect of boron contamination was seen on DNA level.     

Assessment of glass fiber-reinforced polyester pipe powder in soil improvement

This study investigates the use of glass fiber-reinforced polyester (GRP) pipe powder (PP) for improving the bearing capacity of sandy soils. After a series of direct share tests, the optimum PP addition for improving the bearing capacity of soils was found to be 12%. Then, using the optimum PP addition, the bearing capacity of the soil was estimated through a series of loading tests on a shallow foundation model placed in a test box. The bearing capacity of sandy soil was improved by up to 30.7%. The ratio of the depth of the PP-reinforced soil to the diameter of the foundation model (H/D) of 1.25 could sufficiently strengthen sandy soil when the optimum PP ratio was used. Microstructural analyses showed that the increase in the bearing capacity can be attributed to the chopped fibers in the PP and their multiaxial distribution in the soil. Besides improving the engineering properties of soils, using PP as an additive in soils would reduce the accumulation of the industrial waste, thus providing a twofold benefit.     

Controlled synthesis of crosslinked polyamide 6 using a bis-monomer derived from cyclized lysine

The controlled synthesis of polyamide 6 chemical networks by anionic ring-opening copolymerization of ε-caprolactam (CL) with synthesized bis-ε-caprolactam derived from α-amino-ε-caprolactam, i.e. N-functionalized α-amino-ε-caprolactam bis-monomers, using sodium ε-caprolactamate as an initiator and hexamethylene-1,6-dicarbamoylcaprolactam as di-functional fast activator was examined in bulk at 140 °C. An urea-based bis-monomer and CL were first shown to copolymerize with a decreasing polymerization rate due to side reactions. On the contrary, quantitative copolymerization of CL with various amounts of bis-N(2-oxo-3-azepanyl)-1,6-tetramethylenediamide, an amide-based bis-monomer, leads to fast kinetics similar to the homopolymerization of CL. Crosslinked PA6 with network exhibiting elastic or viscoelastic behaviors, depending on the amount of crosslinker, were observed and characterized by swelling in hexafluoroisopropanol, dynamic mechanical analysis and rheology measurements. Crystallinity and swelling were shown to decrease with the increasing content of the crosslinking agent.     

Reactive red 120 and NI(II) derived poly(2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate) nanoparticles for urease adsorption

Non‐porous poly(2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate) [p(HEMA)] nanoparticles were prepared by surfactant free emulsion polymerization. The p(HEMA) nanoparticles was about 200 nm diameter, spherical form, and non‐porous. Reactive Red 120 (RR 120) was covalently attached to the p(HEMA) nanoparticles and Ni(II) ions were incorporated to attach dye molecules. Urease was immobilized onto RR120‐Ni(II) attached p(HEMA) nanoparticles via adsorption. The maximum urease adsorption capacity of RR120‐Ni(II) attached p(HEMA) nanoparticles was 480.01 mg g^?1 nanoparticles at pH 7.0 in phosphate buffer. It was observed that urease could be repeatedly adsorbed and desorbed without significant loss in adsorption amount. K_m values were 21.50 and 34.06 mM for the free and adsorbed enzyme. The V_max values were 4 U for the free enzyme and 3.3 U for the adsorbed enzyme. The optimum pH was 25 mM pH 7 phosphate buffer for free and adsorbed enzyme. The optimum temperature was determined at 35°C and 55°C for the free and adsorbed enzyme, respectively. These findings show considerable promise for this material as an adsorption matrix in biotechnological applications. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131, 39757.     

XRF and Raman Characterization of Antimonite

Abstract

Two type Antimonite (stibnite) ore samples were analyzed by polarized energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (PEDXRF) spectrometry and by confocal Raman spectrometry (CRS) in this study. The samples were collected from two different localities (?zmir-Ödemi? and Bursa-Uluda? zones from Turkey) according to the sampling methods. The first locality hosted within the metamorphic basement and the second locality hosted within the felsic intrusive rock units. The goal of this paper is to compare two different stibnite samples from various regions through PEDXRF and CRS with the optical characteristic features under the ore microscope. Ore microscopy studies reveal that the ?zmir-Ödemi? stibnite is associated mainly with calcite and the Bursa-Uluda? stibnite is associated with celestite and quartz as gangue minerals. Two different colored species were observed in the stibnite of the studied samples. Ore microscopy results, CRS with the PEDXRF results show that the stibnites from the two different localities have different mineral associations, different chemical compositions, and different physical properties.     

Construction of a choline biosensor through enzyme immobilization on a poly(2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate)‐grafted Teflon film

An amperometric choline biosensor was constructed by immobilizing choline oxidase (ChO) on poly(2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA)‐grafted Teflon (polytetrafluoroethylene, PTFE) film. Grafting was achieved by γ irradiation. PHEMA‐grafted Teflon films were activated with epichlorohydrin or glutaraldehyde to achieve covalent immobilization of enzyme onto the film. To decrease the diffusional barrier caused by the enzyme‐immobilized film, the film was stretched directly on the electrode. The PHEMA‐grafted Teflon film, therefore, had to have appropriate mechanical properties. Glucose oxidase (GOD) was used in the determination of optimum immobilization conditions, then these were applied to ChO. With GOD, the effect of activation type and film position in electrode on enzyme activity was studied and the highest catalytic activity was obtained when the enzyme was immobilized using glutaraldehyde and the film was stretched over the electrode surface. Further studies revealed that the films activated with glutaraldehyde, immobilized in 2 mg/mL ChO concentration, and stretched directly on the electrode were suitable (specific activity, 0.427 ± 0.068 U mg^?1) for use in the choline biosensor. The linear working range of this biosensor was found to be 52–348 μM, with a 40 ± 5 μM minimum detection limit. The response of the sensor, however, decreased linearly upon repeated use. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2007     

Material handling considerations in the FMS loading problem with full routing flexibility

This study exploits machining and routing flexibility to effectively deal with the material handling requirements resulting from a frequently changing demand mix in a manufacturing system where material handling is a bottleneck. For this purpose, the objective function of the operation and tool loading problem is selected as the minimisation of the total distance traveled by parts during their production. Versatile machines and the flexible process plans offer full routing flexibility that enable the same workpiece to be processed using alternative sequences of operations on alternative machines. Three mathematical programming (MP) models and a genetic algorithm (GA) are proposed to solve this problem. The proposed MP formulations include a mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model and two mixed-integer programming (MIP) models, which offer different representations for the flexible process plans. The GA is integrated with linear programming for fitness evaluation and incorporates several adaptive strategies for diversification. The performances of these solution methods are tested through extensive numerical experiments. The MP models are evaluated on the basis of the exact solutions they yield as well as how they lend themselves for GA fitness evaluation. The GA–LP integration works successfully for this hard-to-solve problem.     

Integrating tactical and operational decisions in fixed job scheduling

Two different problems are introduced in this article to handle capacity and scheduling decisions simultaneously in the fixed job scheduling framework. The combined fixed job scheduling (CFJS) problem integrates these decisions assuming fixed costs for the usage of identical parallel machines, whereas the working time determination (WTD) problem involves unit-time operating or rental costs. Mathematical models for both problems are presented along with the worst case time complexities. While an exact polynomial-time algorithm is proposed for the CFJS problem, a heuristic algorithm is developed for the WTD problem as it is shown to be strongly NP hard. Computational experiments are carried out for evaluating the performance of the algorithms. The results reveal that the solutions by the exact algorithm for the CFJS problem are much faster than a state-of-the-art commercial solver, particularly for large instances. For the WTD problem, the developed heuristic provides high-quality solutions in very short computation times.     

4-Aminophenyl boronic acid modified gold platforms for influenza diagnosis

As a potential pandemic threat to human health, there has been an urgent need for rapid, sensitive, simpler and less expensive detection method for the highly pathogenic influenza A virus. For this purpose, Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM) and Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) sensors have been developed for the recognition of hemagglutinin (HA) which is a major protein of influenza A virus. 4-Aminophenyl boronic acid (4-APBA) has been synthesized and used as a new ligand for binding of sialic acid (SA) via boronic acid–sugar interaction. SA has an important role in binding of HA. QCM and SPR sensor surfaces have been modified with thiol groups and then 4-APBA and SA have been immobilized on sensor surfaces, respectively. Sensor surfaces have been screened with AFM and used for the determination of HA from aqueous solution. The selective recognition of the QCM and SPR sensors toward Concanavalin A has been reported in this work. Also, the binding capacity and detection limits of QCM and SPR sensors have been calculated and detection limits were found to be 4.7 × 10^? 2 μM, (0.26 μg ml^? 1) and 1.28 × 10^? 1 μM, (0.72 μg ml^? 1) in the 95% confidence interval, respectively.