A new design of flocculation tank: the Turbomix applied to weighted flocculation.

As far as flocculation is concerned, the agglomeration of suspended particles into flocs is highly linked to the hydraulic behaviour of the agitation. The Turbomix is a special design of mixing tank; its design was developed to better control the flow during the flocculation stage. It enables a significant decrease in footprint of the process. The combination of the Turbomix and ballasted flocculation has been studied during pilot trials in terms of treatment efficiency. Its controlled hydraulic behaviour explains the efficiency of the process as proved by CFD investigation.     

Paste Residence Time in a Spouted Bed Dryer. III: Effect of Paste Properties and Quality Interactions

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of paste properties on residence time during drying in a spouted bed dryer with inert bodies. The effect of paste solids content, surface tension, and viscosity on the residence time distribution and the mean residence times were studied using factorial experimental designs. The inert bodies used were glass and polyethylene beads. The mean residence times varied from 13.6 to 16.3 and 12.2 to 17.7 min for drying on glass and polyethylene beads, respectively. The analysis of variance showed that mean residence times significantly depended on solids content and surface tension for glass beads and also on viscosity for polyethylene beads. The residence time distributions for all conditions studied fitted well to the perfect mixing cell when applying the continuous stirred vessels in series model analysis. The powder density, flowability, and particle size depended on paste properties and inert type.     

Nisin expression production from Lactococcus lactis in milk whey medium

BACKGROUND: Nisin is a commercially available bacteriocin produced by Lactococcus lactis ATCC 11454 and used as a natural agent in the biopreservation of food. In the current investigation, milk whey, a byproduct from dairy industries was used as a fermentation substrate for the production of nisin. Lactococcus lactis ATCC 11454 was developed in a rotary shaker (30 °C/36 h/100 rpm) using two different media with milk whey (i) without filtration, pH 6.8, adjusted with NaOH 2 mol L^?1 and without pH adjustment, both autoclaved at 121 °C for 30 min, and (ii) filtrated (1.20 µm and 0.22 µm membrane filter). These cultures were transferred five times using 5 mL aliquots of broth culture for every new volume of the respective media. RESULTS: The results showed that culture media composed of milk whey without filtration supplied L. lactis its adaptation needs better than filtrated milk whey. Nisin titers, in milk whey without filtration (pH adjusted), was 11120.13 mg L^?1 in the second transfer, and up to 1628‐fold higher than the filtrated milk whey, 6.83 mg.L^?1 obtained in the first^t transfer. CONCLUSIONS: Biological processing of milk byproducts (milk whey) can be considered a profitable alternative, generating high‐value bioproducts and contributing to decreasing river disposals by dairy industries. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry     

VH gene family utilization of anti-acetylcholine receptor antibodies in experimental autoimmune myasthenia gravis

The immunoglobulin heavy chain (VH) gene family usage in experimental autoimmune myasthenia gravis (EAMG) model was investigated by RNA slot blot hybridization using VH gene family specific probes. Anti-acetylcholine receptor (AChR) monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) isolated from susceptible C57BL/6 and resistant BALB/c mice were found to be encoded by VH genes from at least six different families. The Vgam3.8 family was overrepresented in alpha-bungarotoxin blocking mAbs. Expression of cross-reactive idiotypes by anti-AChR mAbs was irrespective of the VH gene family usage. Strain dependent differences in susceptibility for EAMG were not reflected in an aberrant VH gene family usage of anti-AChR mAbs.     

Performance of Green Solvents in the Extraction of Sunflower Oil from Enzyme-Treated Collets

The main goal of this work is to evaluate the extraction of sunflower oil from enzyme-treated collets using ethanol and isopropanol (IPA) as solvents. The sunflower collets are pretreated with the multienzyme complex Viscozyme L prior to solvent extraction by the Soxhlet method. The influence of the moisture content of the collets, pretreatment, processing time, and solvent type on the amount of total extracted material and the oil extraction efficiency is studied. Some quality parameters such as phospholipid content of the oil and chlorogenic acid content of the residual meal are also analyzed. At low moisture content (7%) the solvents exhibit similar oil extraction ability (98–99%), but with increasing moisture the extraction efficiency of ethanol decreases to about 85%, while no significant differences are observed for IPA. The enzymatic treatment increases the extraction efficiency for all times, especially for ethanol. It is observed that IPA is more efficient in the extraction compared to ethanol, and the amount of nonlipid material is reduced by ≈70%. In addition, the oil extracted with IPA have lower phospholipid content and the residual meal presents a higher chlorogenic acid content. Practical Applications:This work would contribute toward the use of green solvents in the extraction of sunflower oil from collets. Ethanol and isopropanol, used as solvents, present attractive advantages, including low toxicity, good operational security, as well as being obtained from a renewable source. The obtained data provide up-to-date information on the use of these alcohols in the extraction of sunflower oil from collets and the influence of operating conditions, such as moisture content, enzymatic pretreatment of the collets, and the extraction time. Information about oil and meal quality is also reported.     

Nickel Activation for Hydrogenolysis Reaction on USY Zeolite

The effects of the SAR (14 and 38) and of the methodology of introduction of nickel (wetness impregnation and ion exchange) on catalyst activation were investigated in Ni/USY model catalysts submitted to two activation treatments: reduction (A) and reduction/calcination/reduction, successively (B). the catalysts prepared by wetness impregnation, a marked increase in the catalytic activity after treatment B was observed. On the basis of the catalyst efficiency toward ethane hydrogenolysis, the lower SAR catalyst presents a threefold higher activity. On the contrary, the catalysts prepared by ion exchange, as well as a model catalyst prepared by wetness impregnation over a USY exhaustively exchanged with nickel ions, do not present measurable increasing of the catalytic activity under the same activation conditions. Monitoring the catalyst activation by EXAFS indicates the formation of nickel clusters in the impregnated catalysts after activation treatment B, which should be responsible for the high catalytic activity. However, TEM images reveal a bimodal particle size distribution, with large (ca. 20 nm) and small nickel particles. Temperature-programmed reduction performed under the same conditions of catalyst activation suggests that only the small nickel particles are activated under the experimental conditions adopted in this work.     

Evaluation of the removal of n-butanol vapor by the poly(lactic acid)-zeolite-TiO2 composite and formation of by-products

The use of polymeric films incorporated with zeolite-TiO₂ composites associated with UV radiation can be an alternative in the removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) through the adsorption and photodegradation processes. This study produced poly(lactic acid) (PLA) films incorporated with 13× zeolite, TiO₂, and 13×-TiO₂ zeolite composite to remove n-butanol and evaluate the by-products generated in the process. The results showed that 13× zeolite and TiO₂ added individually or as a composite to PLA, gave the polymer matrix a significant increase in the removal capacity of n-butanol. The best performance was presented by the zeolite-TiO₂, composite, confirming a synergistic effect. However, the formation of CO and CO₂ exceeded the expected values, with the verification that the polymeric matrix underwent photodegradation action by TiO₂. The polymeric film only containing zeolite is the most suitable for the removal of VOCs, as it did not present degradation of the PLA, generating a lower concentration of by-products.     

A biased random‐key genetic algorithm for OSPF and DEFT routing to minimize network congestion

Interior gateway routing protocols like Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) and Distributed Exponentially Weighted Flow Splitting (DEFT) send flow through forward links toward the destination node. OSPF routes only on shortest‐weight paths, whereas DEFT sends flow on all forward links, but with an exponential penalty on longer paths. Finding suitable weights for these protocols is known as the weight setting problem (WSP). In this paper, we present a biased random‐key genetic algorithm for WSP using both protocols. The algorithm uses dynamic flow and dynamic shortest path computations. We report computational experiments that show that DEFT achieves less network congestion when compared with OSPF, while, however, yielding larger delays.     

The between-day and inter-rater reliability of a novel wireless system to analyse lumbar spine posture

Lumbar posture is commonly assessed in non-specific chronic low back pain (NSCLBP), although quantitative measures have mostly been limited to laboratory environments. The BodyGuard? is a spinal position monitoring device that can monitor posture in real time, both inside and outside the laboratory. The reliability of this wireless device was examined in 18 healthy participants during usual sitting and forward bending, two tasks that are commonly provocative in NSCLBP. Reliability was determined using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), the standard error of measurement (SEM), the mean difference and the minimal detectable change (MDC90). Between-day ICC values ranged from 0.84 to 0.87, with small SEM (5%), mean difference (<9%) and MDC90 (<14%) values. Inter-rater ICC values ranged from 0.91 to 0.94, with small SEM (4%), mean difference (6%) and MDC90 (9%) values. Between-day and inter-rater reliability are essential requirements for clinical utility and were excellent in this study. Further studies into the validity of this device and its application in clinical trials in occupational settings are required. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: A novel device that can analyse spinal posture exposure in occupational settings in a minimally invasive manner has been developed. This study established that the device has excellent between-day and inter-rater reliability in healthy pain-free subjects. Further studies in people with low back pain are planned.