Cloning, sequencing and expression of an alpha-L-arabinofuranosidase from Aspergillus sojae

The arabinofuranosidase gene was cloned from the cDNA of Aspergillus sojae. It was found to contain an open reading frame composed of 984 base pairs (bp) and to encode 328 amino acid residues (aa). The cDNA sequence suggested that the mature enzyme is preceded by a 26-aa signal sequence and the molecular mass was predicted to be 32,749 Da. The A. sojae arabinofuranosidase consists of a single catalytic domain; it does not have a specific substrate-binding domain such as the xylan-binding domain reported in an arabinofuranosidase from Streptomyces lividans (Vincent, P. et al.: Biochem. J., 322, 845-852, 1997). The deduced amino acid sequence of the catalytic domain of the mature enzyme exhibits extensive identity with the catalytic domains of Streptomyces coelicolor (74%), Aspergillus niger (75%), S. lividans (74%), and Aspergillus tubingensis (75%), which are enzymes that belong to family 62 of the glycosyl hydrolases. The cloned AFdase gene was expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) pLysS as a cellulose-binding domain tag fusion protein. The specific activity of the purified recombinant enzyme was 18.6 units/mg protein, which is one-fourth that of the enzyme purified from a solid-state culture of A. sojae.     

High‐strength regenerated cellulose fibers spun from 1‐butyl‐3‐methylimidazolium chloride solutions

High‐performance regenerated cellulose fibers were prepared from cellulose/1‐butyl‐3‐methylimidazolium chloride (BMIMCl) solutions via dry‐jet wet spinning. The spinnability of the solution was initially evaluated using the maximum winding speed of the solution spinning line under various ambient temperatures and relative humidities in the air gap. The subsequent spinning trials were conducted under various air gap conditions in a water coagulation bath. It was found that low temperature and low relative humidity in the air gap were important to obtain fibers with high tensile strength at a high draw ratio. From a 10 wt % cellulose/BMIMCl solution, regenerated fibers with tensile strength up to 886 MPa were prepared below 22 °C and relative humidity of 50%. High strengthening was also strongly linked with the fixation effect on fibers during washing and drying processes. Furthermore, an effective attempt to prepare higher performance fibers was conducted from a higher polymer concentration solution using a high molecular weight dissolving pulp. Eventually, fibers with a tensile strength of ～1 GPa and Young's modulus over 35 GPa were prepared. These tensile properties were ranked at the highest level for regenerated cellulose fibers prepared by an ionic liquid–based process. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017 , 134, 45551.     

一种新型两性界面活性剂的减阻特性

对一种新合成的两性界面活性剂N,N,N-三甲胺-N′-油酸酰亚胺在二维通道内的减阻特性进行了实验研究.为了能进行低温测试,以20%的甘醇不冻液为溶剂.溶液质量浓度范围为（5×10^-5）～（1×10^-3）,测试温度为-5℃和25℃.用粒子成像测速仪对减阻流动的湍流特性进行了测量.实验表明,这种新型界面活性剂溶液呈现明显减阻特性,且减阻特性与浓度和温度均有很大的关系,最大减阻值可高达83%.该界面活性剂中加入NaNO₂,在低温和低浓度条件下能有效改善减阻效果,而在常温和高浓度条件下反而降低减阻效果.添加界面活性剂抑制了湍流速度脉动和湍流涡脉动,使雷诺剪切应力完全消失.     

Pyrolysis of sugarcane bagasse pretreated with sulfuric acid

Pyrolysis is a promising technique for the recovery of useful gas, tar, and solid products from biomass waste. However, the low tar yields obtained from lignocellulosic biomass are a significant drawback. To enhance tar yields, sugarcane bagasse, which is the most abundant agricultural waste in Fiji, was pretreated at ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure using various sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄) concentrations. Here, the ether bonds of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin were partially hydrolyzed. The pretreated samples were then pyrolyzed at 500 °C, and it was confirmed that H₂SO₄-pretreatment disrupted the bagasse cell structure, with the thermogravimetry and differential thermogravimetry results confirming that decomposition occurred at lower temperatures after pretreatment. In addition, tar yields were significantly enhanced from 5.6 wt% to 13.4 wt% for the untreated and 3 M H₂SO₄-pretreated samples respectively. The main components detected in this tar product were levoglucosan, andcellulose-and hemicellulose-derived products, whose proportions were increased following pretreatment. Thus, our work demonstrates that dilute acid pretreatment enhances tar production from sugarcane bagasse due to the production of shorter chain components via the partial hydrolysis of ether bonds.     

Reverse osmosis performance of organosilica membranes and comparison with the pervaporation and gas permeation properties

Hybrid organosilica membranes were successfully prepared using bis(triethoxysilyl)ethane (BTESE) and applied to reverse osmosis (RO) desalination. The organosilica membrane calcined at 300^°C almost completely rejected salts and neutral solutes with low‐molecular‐weight. Increasing the operating pressure led to an increase in water flux and salt rejection, while the flux and rejection decreased as salt concentration increased. The water permeation mechanism differed from the viscous flow mechanism. Observed activation energies for permeation were larger for membranes with a smaller pore size, and were considerably larger than the activation energy for water viscosity. The organosilica membranes exhibited exceptional hydrothermal stability in temperature cycles up to 90^°C. The applicability of the generalized solution‐diffusion (SD) model to RO and pervaporation (PV) desalination processes were examined, and the quantitative differences in water permeance were accurately predicted by the application of generalized transport equations. © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 59: 1298–1307, 2013     

A photocatalytic membrane reactor for gas-phase reactions using porous titanium oxide membranes

Photocatalytic membrane reactors using porous titanium oxide membranes having pore sizes of several nanometers were utilized for a gas-phase reaction of methanol. Air mixed with methanol (MeOH) vapor, the concentration of which was controlled in the range of 500–6000 ppm, was fed to the photocatalytic membrane reactor in the range of 50–500 cm³/min using several types of flow patterns. Photocatalysis with membrane permeation resulted in a large decomposition rate, compared to photocatalysis without membrane permeation. The characteristics of the reaction such as decomposition ratio of MeOH, the conversion of the decomposed MeOH to CO₂ and H₂O were found to be a function of the residence time in the reactor. The photocatalytic reaction was analyzed based on pseudo-first-order kinetics to ascertain its simplicity, and the fitted curves were found to be in a relatively good agreement with the experimental data. Apparent rate constants with and without membrane permeation were 2.5 and 1.5×10⁻⁶ m s⁻¹, respectively, indicating that the performance of the photocatalytic reaction system with membrane permeation was enhanced.     

Mechanical and physical properties of epoxy composites reinforced by vapor grown carbon nanofibers

Epoxy/vapor grown carbon nanofiber composites (VGCF) with different proportions of VGCF were fabricated by the in situ process.The VGCFs were well dispersed in both of the low and high viscosity epoxy matrices, although occasional small aggregates were observed in a high viscosity epoxy of 20 wt.%. The dynamic mechanical behavior of the nanocomposite sheets was studied. The storage modulus and the glass transition temperature (T_g) of the polymer were increased by the incorporation of VGCFs.The electrical and mechanical properties of the epoxy-VGCFs nanocomposite sheets with different weight percentages of VGCFs were discussed. The results were that both had maximum tensile strength and Young’s modulus at 5 wt.% for both materials and reduced the fracture strain with increasing filler content. The electrical resistivity was decreased with the addition of filler content. Mechanical, electrical and thermal properties of low viscosity epoxy composites were resulted better than that of the high viscosity composites.     

Computational fluid dynamics simulation and statistical procedure for estimating wide-area distributions of airborne sea salt considering local ground conditions

Steel corrosion under atmospheric conditions is a critical issue in the maintenance of structures such as electric transmission towers and bridges during their long-term operation, which are generally located at many places over a wide area. Since a major factor causing corrosion is airborne salt particles coming from the sea, wide-area distributions of the long-term cumulative amount of sea salt deposited on surfaces are needed. Moreover, since the amount of airborne sea salt varies locally with the topography, it is also important to consider the effects of topography. In this paper, a method combining a computational fluid dynamics model and a statistical procedure is proposed to efficiently estimate wide-area distributions of the cumulative amount of airborne sea salt by considering the local topography. The predicted amount of airborne sea salt decreases with increasing distance from the coast and varies with the topography and the offshore wind. A comparison between predicted and observed amounts revealed that: (1) this method appropriately estimates topographical effects on sea-salt transport and enables the estimation of deposited sea salt on structure surfaces, and (2) consideration of the trapping efficiency of sea-salt particles on structure surfaces improves the prediction accuracy.     

Oxygen potential measurements of Am0.5Pu0.5O2−x by EMF method

The dependence of the oxygen potentials on oxygen non-stoichiometry and temperature of Am_0.5Pu_0.5O_2−x has been obtained by the electromotive force (EMF) method with the cell: (Pt) air |Zr(Ca)O_2−x| Am_0.5Pu_0.5O_2−x (Pt). The x value of Am_0.5Pu_0.5O_2−x was changed at 1333 K over 0.02 < x ? 0.25 by the coulomb titration method. The temperature dependence of the oxygen potential was also measured over the range of 1173-1333 K. It was found that the oxygen potential decreased from −80 to −360 kJ mol⁻¹ with increasing x from 0.021 to 0.22 at 1333 K and that it remained almost constant at −360 kJmol⁻¹ around x = 0.23. It was concluded that Am_0.5Pu_0.5O_2−x should be composed of the single fluorite-type phase over 0.02 < x ? 0.22 and the mixed phases of fluorite-type and (Am, Pu)₉O₁₆ at around x = 0.23.