Influence of the Pressure and Composition of the Fuel Mixture on its Ignition by a Subcritical Streamer Discharge

Journal of Engineering Physics and Thermophysics - Based on the data of a physical experiment, the possibility of increasing the efficiency of combustion of fuel in power plants with the use of a...     

Removal of Cadmium and Lead from Aqueous Solution by Enterococcus faecium Strains

ABSTRACT:  Foods may be contaminated with heavy metals, which, even in small quantities, possess detrimental effects on human health. The aim of the present study was to investigate the uptake of cadmium or lead from an aqueous medium frequently found in foods, by 2  Enterococcus faecium  strains ( E. faecium  EF031 and  E. faecium  M74). Also, the effects of the bacterial viability, incubation (contact) time, and pH on the binding capacities and binding stability were assessed. The results showed that both of the strains efficiently removed cadmium and lead. While EF031 removed 77.3% to 98.1% of cadmium and 66.9% to 98.9% of lead, M74 removed 53.5% to 91% of cadmium and 42.9% to 93.1% of lead throughout a 48 h incubation period at pH 5. It was found that, at 1 h, EF031 and M74 strains removed cadmium and lead, which was more than 60% of total removed cadmium and lead throughout the whole incubation period of 48 h. It suggests that the uptake of cadmium and lead by EF031 and M74 strains is a rapid process. The binding of both heavy metals increased with increasing pH of an aqueous medium and was the highest at pH 5. Also, the complexes formed between both heavy metals and bacterial cells were found to be stable. These findings indicate that  E. faecium  strains used in the study are able to bind the 2 heavy metals and may be used in the production of fermented functional foods, which will be healthy via its detoxification properties.     

Mechanism of physical actions for a local directional change in state of a rock mass

IGTM, Ukraine Academy of Sciences, Dnepropetrovsk. Translated from Fiziko-Tekhnicheskie Problemy Razrabotki Poleznykh Iskopaemykh, No. 5, pp. 86–91, September–October, 1989.     

Characteristics of Schottky Rectifier Diodes Based on Silicon Carbide at Elevated Temperatures

Semiconductors - Forward and reverse current–voltage characteristics of commercial rectifier diodes based on a Schottky barrier to 4H-SiC are studied in the temperature range...     

Initial stages of asphaltene aggregation in dilute crude oil solutions: studies of viscosity and NMR relaxation

In crude oil-toluene solutions dynamic viscosity η and spin-spin relaxation time T₂ were measured as functions of asphaltene concentration C in the range of 10-300 mg/l. The results were supplemented by studies of optical absorption. Extrema in the measured concentration dependencies are attributed to a transient predominance of specific asphaltene aggregates—from dimers to stacked molecular nanoclusters (MNCs) of four monomers. The strikingly non-ideal properties of solutions with C below 150-170 mg/l are attributed to the strong interactions between asphaltene species. At higher C the solution properties are evidently determined by the weaker interacting MNCs and the concentration effects are closer to those in ideal fluid mixtures. The observed re-entrant η(T₂) behaviour in asphaltene solutions hypothetically has the same origin as in supercooled or demixing molecular systems, where anomalous structural and dynamical features are often explained by emerging heterogeneity due to transient spontaneous clustering.