Optimization and evaluation of reduced graphene oxide hydrogel composite as a demulsifier for heavy crude oil-in-water emulsion

The rising production of produced water from oilfields had been proven to bring detrimental environmental effects. In this study, an efficient, recyclable, and environmental-friendly reduced graphene oxide immobilized κ-Carrageenan hydrogel composite(κCa GO) was fabricated as an alternative sorbent for crude oil-in-water demulsification. Polyethyleneimine(PEI) was employed to form a stable hydrogel composite. The conditions for the immobilization of graphene oxide(GO) on PEI-modified κ-Carrageenan(κC) beads were optimized appropriately. An immobilization yield of 77% was attained at 2% PEI, 2 h immobilization activation time, and p H6.5. Moreover, the synthesized κCa GO is capable of demulsification with an average demulsification efficiency of 70%. It was found that the demulsification efficiency increases with salinity and κCa GO dosage, and it deteriorates under alkaline condition. These phenomena can be attributed to the interfacial interactions between κCa GO and the emulsion. Furthermore, the κCa GO can be recycled to use for up to six cycles without significant leaching and degradation. As such, the synthesized κCa GO could be further developed as a potential sorbent substitute for the separation of crude oil from produced water.     

Effects of Adenine Methylation on the Structure and Thermodynamic Stability of a DNA Minidumbbell

DNA methylation is a prevalent regulatory modification in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. N¹-methyladenine (m¹A) and N⁶-methyladenine (m⁶A) have been found to be capable of altering DNA structures via disturbing Watson–Crick base pairing. However, little has been known about their influences on non-B DNA structures, which are associated with genetic instabilities. In this work, we investigated the effects of m¹A and m⁶A on both the structure and thermodynamic stability of a newly reported DNA minidumbbell formed by two TTTA tetranucleotide repeats. As revealed by the results of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopic studies, both m¹A and m⁶A favored the formation of a T·m¹A and T·m⁶A Hoogsteen base pair, respectively. More intriguingly, the m¹A and m⁶A modifications brought about stabilization and destabilization effects on the DNA minidumbbell, respectively. This work provides new biophysical insights into the effects of adenine methylation on the structure and thermodynamic stability of DNA.     

Usher Syndrome in the Inner Ear: Etiologies and Advances in Gene Therapy

Hearing loss is the most common sensory disorder with ~466 million people worldwide affected, representing about 5% of the population. A substantial portion of hearing loss is genetic. Hearing loss can either be non-syndromic, if hearing loss is the only clinical manifestation, or syndromic, if the hearing loss is accompanied by a collage of other clinical manifestations. Usher syndrome is a syndromic form of genetic hearing loss that is accompanied by impaired vision associated with retinitis pigmentosa and, in many cases, vestibular dysfunction. It is the most common cause of deaf-blindness. Currently cochlear implantation or hearing aids are the only treatments for Usher-related hearing loss. However, gene therapy has shown promise in treating Usher-related retinitis pigmentosa. Here we review how the etiologies of Usher-related hearing loss make it a good candidate for gene therapy and discuss how various forms of gene therapy could be applied to Usher-related hearing loss.     

Large-scale in vivo synthesis of the carbohydrate moieties of gangliosides GM1 and GM2 by metabolically engineered Escherichia coli

Two metabolically engineered Escherichia coli strains have been constructed to produce the carbohydrate moieties of gangliosides GM2 (GalNAcbeta-4(NeuAcalpha-3)Galbeta-4Glc; Gal = galactose, Glc = glucose, Ac = acetyl) and GM1 (Galbeta-3GalNAcbeta-4(NeuAcalpha-3)Galbeta-4Glc. The GM2 oligosaccharide-producing strain TA02 was devoid of both beta-galactosidase and sialic acid aldolase activities and overexpressed the genes for CMP-NeuAc synthase (CMP = cytidine monophosphate), alpha-2,3-sialyltransferase, UDP-GlcNAc (UDP = uridine diphosphate) C4 epimerase, and beta-1,4-GalNAc transferase. When this strain was cultivated on glycerol, exogenously added lactose and sialic acid were shown to be actively internalized into the cytoplasm and converted into GM2 oligosaccharide. The in vivo synthesis of GM1 oligosaccharide was achieved by taking a similar approach but using strain TA05, which additionally overexpressed the gene for beta-1,3-galactosyltransferase. In high-cell-density cultures, the production yields for the GM2 and GM1 oligosaccharides were 1.25 g L(-1) and 0.89 g L(-1), respectively.     

Non-existence of finite-time stable equilibria in fractional-order nonlinear systems

We note that in the literature it is often taken for granted that for fractional-order system without delays, whenever the system trajectory reaches the equilibrium, it will stay there. In fact, this is the well-known phenomenon of finite-time stability. However, in this paper, we will prove that for fractional-order nonlinear system described by Caputo’s or Riemann–Liouville’s definition, any equilibrium cannot be finite-time stable as long as the continuous solution corresponding to the initial value problem globally exists. In addition, some examples of stability analysis are revisited and linear Lyapunov function is used to prove the asymptotic stability of positive fractional-order nonlinear systems.     

Deriving length two path centered surface area for the arrangement graph: a generating function approach

We discuss the notion of \(H\) -centered surface area of a graph \(G\) , where \(H\) is a subgraph of \(G\) , i.e., the number of vertices in \(G\) at a certain distance from \(H\) , and focus on the special case when \(H\) is a length two path to derive an explicit formula for the length two path centered surface area of the general and scalable arrangement graph, following a generating function approach.     

Lipid hydrolysis and oxidation on the surface of milled rice

The changes in milled rice FFA content and composition and in conjugated diene (CD) content and bacterial, yeast, and mold counts were determined at 24, 37, and 50°C and 70% RH over 50 d. There was a rapid rate of FFA formation during the first few days of storage, which was optimal at 37°C, but that slowed after 2, 4, and 5 d at 37, 24, and 50°C, respectively. There was a second increase in FFA after about day 12 that increased with increasing temperature, indicating nonlipase hydrolysis. Linoleic and oleic acids were the main components of the total FFA produced on the surface of milled rice. The pattern of CD development followed that of FFA increase. Bacterial growth correlated with increased FFA levels after 12 d of storage, suggesting that bacterial lipase rather than bran lipase may be responsible for rice lipid hydrolysis     

An order-picking operations system for managing the batching activities in a warehouse

Nowadays, customer orders with high product variety in small quantities are often received and requested for timely delivery. However, the order-picking process is a labour-intensive and costly activity to handle those small orders separately. In such cases, small orders are often grouped into batches so that two or more orders can be served at once to increase the picking efficiency and thus reduce the travel distance. In this paper, an order-picking operations system (OPOS) is proposed to assist the formulation of an order-picking plan and batch-handling sequence. The study integrates a mathematical model and fuzzy logic technique to divide the receiving orders into batches and prioritise the batch-handling sequence for picking, respectively. Through the proposed system, the order-picking process can be managed as batches with common picking locations to minimise the travel distance, and the batch-picking sequence can be determined as well. To demonstrate the use of the system, a case study in a third-party logistics warehouse is presented, and the result shows that both the order-picking activity and labour utilisation can be better organised.     

A new result on the delay‐dependent stability of discrete systems with time‐varying delays

This paper proposes an improvement to the delay‐dependent stability of discrete systems with time‐varying delays. The approach is based on the observation that the positive definiteness of a chosen Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional does not necessarily require all the involved symmetric matrices to be positive definite, which has been overlooked in the literature. The derived delay‐dependent stability conditions are in terms of linear matrix inequalities. It is theoretically proved that our results are less conservative than the corresponding ones obtained by requiring the positive definiteness of all the symmetric matrices in a chosen Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional. The importance of the present approach is that a great number of delay‐dependent analysis and synthesis results obtained by the aforementioned requirement in the literature can be improved by the present approach without introducing any new decision variables. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effect of platinum and silver deposits in the photocatalytic oxidation of resorcinol

The effects of platinum (Pt) and silver (Ag) metallisation in the photocatalytic oxidation of resorcinol at pH 3 ± 0.5 have been investigated. The photocatalytic degradation of resorcinol was significantly improved by Pt/TiO₂, while the presence of Ag/TiO₂ enhanced the initial photocatalytic degradation rate of resorcinol slightly. Likewise, the photocatalytic mineralisation of resorcinol continued to be enhanced by Pt/TiO₂, but it was retarded when Ag/TiO₂ was used.

The function of Pt and Ag deposits on the surface of TiO₂ has been found to be markedly influenced by the interaction of resorcinol and its degradation products with the metal deposits. The presence of Pt or Ag on the surface of TiO₂ altered the distribution of degradation products of resorcinol as well as the production of photoactive species for the photocatalytic oxidation of resorcinol. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), zeta potential and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses have indicated that the contrasting effect of Pt and Ag deposits were governed by the oxidation states and the catalytic property of metal deposits. In addition to that, it has been found that the roles of metal deposits are specific and should not be generalised.