Substrate characterisation for a subsurface reactive barrier to treat colliery spoil leachate

Subsurface permeable reactive barriers (PRB) have been used to successfully treat acidic mine drainage in Canada and offer great potential for doing the same in the United Kingdom. A PRB for the treatment of colliery spoil leachate from a site near Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, has been designed. The selection of the reactive media to be used is of paramount importance, with particular reference to permeability and reactivity. A number of reactive media mixtures containing varying proportions of cattle slurry screenings, green waste compost, calcite limestone chips and pea gravel were prepared and their respective permeabilities and reactivities were investigated. Media mixtures containing 50% 10 mm grade calcite limestone chips showed better alkalinity addition and metals removal than a blank containing 50% pea gravel. A media mixture containing 50% limestone chips and 50% green waste compost showed a 24 h period to achieve maximum addition of alkalinity and maximum removal of acidity and metals. Mixtures containing 25% green waste compost and 25% slurry screenings achieved maximum addition/removal in 4 h. The likely presence of iron sulphide in samples drawn from test vessels during both test runs indicates that bacterial sulphate reduction is occurring in this composite.     

Carbohydrate-based label-free detection of Escherichia coli ORN 178 using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy

A label-free biosensor for Escherichia coli (E. coli) ORN 178 based on faradaic electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was developed. α-Mannoside or β-galactoside was immobilized on a gold disk electrode using a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) via a spacer terminated in a thiol functionality. Impedance measurements (Nyquist plot) showed shifts due to the binding of E. coli ORN 178, which is specific for α-mannoside. No significant change in impedance was observed for E. coli ORN 208, which does not bind to α-mannoside. With increasing concentrations of E. coli ORN 178, electron-transfer resistance (R(et)) increases before the sensor is saturated. After the Nyquist plot of E. coli/mixed SAM/gold electrode was modeled, a linear relationship between normalized R(et) and the logarithmic value of E. coli concentrations was found in a range of bacterial concentration from 10(2) to 10(3) CFU/mL. The combination of robust carbohydrate ligands with EIS provides a label-free, sensitive, specific, user-friendly, robust, and portable biosensing system that could potentially be used in a point-of-care or continuous environmental monitoring setting.     

In vivo behavior of biodegradable Mg-Nd-Y-Zr-Ca alloy

The aim of the this study is to evaluate the in vivo behavior of Mg–1.5%Nd–0.5%Y–0.5%Zr implants with and without 0.4%Ca in comparison with inert Ti-6Al-4V reference implants. This was carried out by implanting cylindrical disks at the back midline of Wister male rats within the subcutaneous layer of the skin for up to 12 weeks. The degradation of magnesium-based implants in terms of hydrogen gas bubble formation was evaluated by radiography assessment; corrosion rate was analyzed by visual examination and weight loss measurements. The physiological response of the rats post-implantation was obtained by evaluating their wellbeing behavior and blood biochemical analysis including serum Mg, blood urea nitrogen, and serum creatinine. In addition, histological analyses of the soft tissue around the implants were carried out to assess local lesions relating to the implants such as inflammation, tissue necrosis, granulation, mineralization, and tumor development. The results obtained clearly indicate that apart from the normal degradation characteristics and subsequent formation of hydrogen gas bubbles, the in vivo behavior of Mg implants was adequate and comparable to that of Ti-6Al-4V reference alloy. In addition, it was evident that the corrosion degradation of the magnesium alloys was strongly related to the location of the implant within the animal’s body. The addition of 0.4%Ca improves the biodegradation corrosion resistance of the tested magnesium implants.     

Conduction in rectangular plates with boundary temperatures specified

Steady-state components of heat conduction solutions may have very slowly convergent series for temperatures and non-convergent heat fluxes for temperature boundary conditions. Previous papers have proposed methods to remove these convergence problems. However, even more effective procedures based on insights of Morse and Feshbach are given herein. In some cases it is possible to replace poorly-convergent or non-convergent series by closed-form algebraic solutions. Examples are given.     

Piecewise regression model construction with sample efficient regression tree (SERT) and applications to semiconductor yield analysis

Forward stepwise regression analysis selects critical attributes all the way with the same set of data. Regression analysis is, however, not capable of splitting data to construct piecewise regression models. Regression trees have been known to be an effective data mining tool for constructing piecewise models by iteratively splitting data set and selecting attributes into a hierarchical tree model. However, the sample size reduces sharply after few levels of data splitting causing unreliable attribute selection. In this research, we propose a method to effectively construct a piecewise regression model by extending the sample-efficient regression tree (SERT) approach that combines the forward selection in regression analysis and the regression tree methodologies. The proposed method attempts to maximize the usage of the dataset's degree of freedom and to attain unbiased model estimates at the same time. Hypothetical and actual semiconductor yield-analysis cases are used to illustrate the method and its effective search for critical factors to be included in the dataset's underlying model.     

The effect of polyethylene crystallinity and polarity on thermal stability and controlled release of essential oils in antimicrobial films

Antimicrobial packaging can preserve and increase shelf life of free preservatives food products. Active materials present in the packaging material can migrate, in a controlled manner, to the food surface, avoiding bacterial and fungal proliferation and keeping the food product edible for longer periods of time. Essential oils (EO) are natural antimicrobial agents that can be released to the headspace with no direct contact between the package and the food. To minimize loses of EO during high heat melt processing, a three stages process was implemented and tested. Antimicrobial films were prepared by melt mixing a variety of polyethylene copolymers in the presence of organo‐modified montmorillonite nano clay (NC) and thymol, an EO present in oregano and thyme. A controlled EO desorption from films can be achieved by changing the polymer crystallinity and polarity. As the crystallinity increased, the thermal stability of the EO during the extrusion process improved. The addition of NC affects the structure and homogeneity of the crystals. The combination of high polymer crystallinity and chemical affinity between EO and NC increased the thermal stability of the EO during film processing, enabling to control the desorption rate. The effect of multilayer structure based on varied densities and polarities was also studied. Increasing the polarity of the outer layers in multilayered film reduced the EO desorption rate as a result of chemical interactions between the polymer and the EO. The final antimicrobial activity of the films was also found to be dependent on the EO partitioning. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131, 40309.