Simultaneous heterotrophic and sulfur-oxidizing autotrophic denitrification process for drinking water treatment: control of sulfate production

A long-term performance of a packed-bed bioreactor containing sulfur and limestone was evaluated for the denitrification of drinking water. Autotrophic denitrification rate was limited by the slow dissolution rate of sulfur and limestone. Dissolution of limestone for alkalinity supplementation increased hardness due to release of Ca²⁺. Sulfate production is the main disadvantage of the sulfur autotrophic denitrification process. The effluent sulfate concentration was reduced to values below drinking water guidelines by stimulating the simultaneous heterotrophic and autotrophic denitrification with methanol supplementation. Complete removal of 75 mg/L NO₃-N with effluent sulfate concentration of around 225 mg/L was achieved when methanol was supplemented at methanol/NO₃-N ratio of 1.67 (mg/mg), which was much lower than the theoretical value of 2.47 for heterotrophic denitrification. Batch studies showed that sulfur-based autotrophic NO₂-N reduction rate was around three times lower than the reduction rate of NO₃-N, which led to NO₂-N accumulation at high loadings.     

Block copolymers of acrylonitrile and poly(dimethylsiloxane)s

The chemical redox system of ceric ammonium nitrate(Ce⁴⁺) and poly(dimethylsiloxane)s (PDMS) with monohydroxy (MH), dihydroxy (DH), and diamine(DA) chain ends was used to polymerize acrylonitrile (AN) to produce monohydroxy poly(dimethylsiloxane)s‐b‐polyacrylonitrile (MH.PDMS‐b‐PAN), dihydroxy poly(dimethylsiloxane)s‐b‐polyacrylonitrile (DH.PDMS‐b‐PAN), and α, ω‐diamine poly(dimethylsiloxane)s‐b‐polyacrylonitrile (DA.PDMS‐b‐PAN) block copolymers. The concentration, reaction time, and the type of poly(dimethylsiloxane) affect the yield and the molecular weight of the copolymers. The ratio of AN/ceric salt/PDMS has remarkably affects the properties of formed copolymers. DH.PDMS‐b‐PAN copolymers were also prepared by electroinduced polymerization in the presence of catalytic amount of Ce⁴⁺ in a divided electrochemical cell where Ce³⁺ is readily oxidized into Ce⁴⁺ at the anode. The products were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, ¹H‐NMR spectroscopy, DSC, and their surface properties were investigated through contact‐angle measurements. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013     

Chitosan‐based wet‐spun scaffolds for bioactive agent delivery

Use of scaffolds both as supporting materials at defect site and delivery vehicles for bioactive agents is a commonly employed strategy to aid in tissue repair and regeneration. In this study, fibrous meshes of chitosan were prepared by wet spinning and coated with alginate. BSA as a model protein and gentamicin as a model antibiotic were incorporated into the scaffolds in multiple loading models and their release kinetics were studied. The effects of structural form of scaffold and properties of bioactive agents on release profiles were evaluated. Our results suggest that, designed scaffolds are potential candidates for tissue engineering with the feature of controlled bioactive agent delivery. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 130: 3759–3769, 2013     

Adsorption of reactive yellow 145 onto chitosan coated magnetite nanoparticles

Removal of dyes from the industrial discharge water is an important issue for safety of the environment. In this study, magnetic (magnetite, Fe₃O₄) nanoparticles were coated with chitosan (CS) and the efficiency of these chitosan coated magnetic nanoparticles (Fe₃O₄‐CS) for the adsorption of a reactive textile dye (Reactive Yellow 145, RY145) was examined first time in literature. TEM, XRD, and EPR results revealed that the thickness of the coat was about 2–5 nm, no phase change in the spinel structure of magnetic particles existed after coating, and particles had paramagnetic property, respectively. Adsorption of RY145 on Fe₃O₄‐CS nanoparticles occurs according to Langmuir model in the temperature range 25°C–45°C with a maximum adsorption capacity of 47.62 mg g^?1 at 25°C, in aqueous media. Thermodynamic parameters demonstrated that the adsorption process was endothermic and spontaneous, and the maximum desorption of the dye was 80% over a single adsorption/desorption cycle. In this study, the high efficiency of the CS coated magnetic nanoparticles in the adsorption and removal of reactive dyes from water was shown on model RY145. This type of nanoparticles can be good candidates in industrial applications for the decolorization of waste waters. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012     

Study of the effect of adding the powder of waste PET bottles and borax pentahydrate to the urea formaldehyde adhesive applied on?plywood

In the present study, the effect of adding the powder of waste PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles and borax pentahydrate in equal amounts to the urea-formaldehyde (UF) adhesive on the bonding characteristics and free formaldehyde content was studied. Experiments were conducted on three layered plywood of beech (Fagus orientalis) and poplar (Populus x eureamericana), which were produced using urea-formaldehyde adhesive to which powdered PET bottle and borax pentahydrate were added in certain amounts. Furthermore, the bending strength of the produced plywood was analyzed according to BS EN 320, the withdrawal shear strength according to BS EN 314-2, and the free formaldehyde content according to EN 717-2. The obtained results were then compared. It can be seen that the addition of powdered PET bottle and borax pentahydrate to the adhesive mixture used on the plywood statistically increased its bending strength and withdrawal shear strength but significantly reduced the free formaldehyde content.     

Reactions of aminoarylazopyrazoles with active methylene compounds. Part 1: Synthesis of 7-amino-3-arylazo-6-cyano-2-methylpyrazolo[5,1-c][1,2,4]triazines

In this study, 2-arylhydrazone-3-ketiminobutyronitriles were synthesised and reacted with hydrazine hydrate to afford 5-amino-4-arylazo-3-methyl-1 H -pyrazoles. These compounds were then diazotised and coupled with malononitrile to give pyrazolylazomalononitriles. Thirteen novel pyrazolo[5,1- c ][1,2,4]triazine dyes were synthesised by heating pyrazolylazomalononitriles in glacial acetic acid and characterised by elemental analysis and spectral methods. The effect of varying pH and solvent upon the absorption ability of the dyes substituted with electron-withdrawing and electron-donating groups at their o -, m - and p -position was examined in detail.     

Synthesis and Characterization of Novel Polymeric-Schiff Bases and Their Complexes

An investigation of the solid state conductivity of polymeric-Schiff bases derived from the condensation reaction of polyacrylamide and an aldehyde (4-methoxybenzaldehyde and 4-chlorbenzaldehyde) has been carried out and Co(II) and Ni(II) complexes have been prepared. Polymeric-Schiff bases and their metal complexes were characterized by molar conductance, magnetic susceptibility, and electronic and IR spectral studies. Conductivity measurements were carried out at 20 °C in dimethylformamide to determine the electrolytic behavior. The ¹H-NMR and ¹³C-NMR spectra, elemental analysis, and viscosity average molecular mass (M _v) of the polymeric-Schiff bases and their complexes were determined. All of the polymer–metal complexes showed high thermally stability. The DC conductivities of the solid samples were measured using a four-probe technique.     

T-Man: Gossip-based fast overlay topology construction

Large-scale overlay networks have become crucial ingredients of fully-decentralized applications and peer-to-peer systems. Depending on the task at hand, overlay networks are organized into different topologies, such as rings, trees, semantic and geographic proximity networks. We argue that the central role overlay networks play in decentralized application development requires a more systematic study and effort towards understanding the possibilities and limits of overlay network construction in its generality. Our contribution in this paper is a gossip protocol called T-Man that can build a wide range of overlay networks from scratch, relying only on minimal assumptions. The protocol is fast, robust, and very simple. It is also highly configurable as the desired topology itself is a parameter in the form of a ranking method that orders nodes according to preference for a base node to select them as neighbors. The paper presents extensive empirical analysis of the protocol along with theoretical analysis of certain aspects of its behavior. We also describe a practical application of T-Man for building Chord distributed hash table overlays efficiently from scratch.     

Numerical analysis of choked converging nozzle flows with surface roughness and heat flux conditions

Choked converging nozzle flow and heat transfer characteristics are numerically investigated by means of a recent computational model that integrates the axisymmetric continuity, state, momentum and energy equations. To predict the combined effects of nozzle geometry, friction and heat transfer rates, analyses are conducted with sufficiently wide ranges of covergence half angle, surface roughness and heat flux conditions. Numerical findings show that inlet Mach and Nusselt numbers decrease up to 23.1% and 15.8% with surface heat flux and by 15.13% and 4.8% due to surface roughness. Considering each convergence half angle case individually results in a linear relation between nozzle discharge coefficients and exit Reynolds numbers with similar slopes. Heat flux implementation, by decreasing the shear stress values, lowers the risks due to wear hazards at upstream sections of flow walls; however the final 10% downstream nozzle portion is determined to be quite critical, where shear stress attains the highest magnitudes. Heat transfer rates are seen to increase in the streamwise direction up to 2.7 times; however high convergence half angles, heat flux and surface roughness conditions lower inlet Nusselt numbers by 70%, 15.8% and 4.8% respectively.