Biological Water Treatment by a Hybrid Fluidized-Bed Bioreactor: Theoretical Study

A hybrid fluidized-bed bioreactor for water purification was proposed and analyzed. It is a novel type of bioreactor characterized by hitherto unknown stationary and dynamic features. Steady-state characteristics of this hybrid bioreactor with external liquid circulation are presented. A quantitative analysis of steady-state properties of the bioreactor was performed with the aid of an original mathematical model developed for a double-substrate aerobic microbiological process. A steady-state analysis of aerobic processes characterized by different oxygen demand was performed. The effect of essential parameters was evaluated, including carbonaceous substrate concentration in the feed stream to the apparatus, aeration intensity, total residence time of a liquid in the bioreactor, and height of the bed of fine carrier particles.     

Instructional texts rewritten by five expert teams: Revisions and retention improvements.

700 undergraduates were tested in 3 experiments on original or rewritten versions of 52 instructional texts about Army job tasks, general science, philosophy, and history. Five experts had rewritten various sets of the texts and stated hypotheses about the efficacious features of their revisions. We tested their hypotheses and several others. Recall and recognition tests were given immediately and after a 24-hr delay. Results showed that revisions made by 3 of the 5 experts improved retention of text information. The kind and number of revisions and improvements varied across the text sets. Most expert hypotheses were not supported, and they made many revisions they were declaratively unaware of. Some of our hypotheses about the revision features were supported, but different features were effective for different sets of texts. It was concluded that some experts have effective knowledge about improving instructional text, but it exists primarily in procedural form. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Study of liquid injection impact on the performance of new refrigerant mixtures

In this paper, the test results of liquid injection impact on the performance of new alternative refrigerant mixtures such as: R-410A, R-507, R-407C and R-404A are discussed, analysed and presented. The test results were obtained using an air-source heat pump set-up with enhanced surface tubing under various liquid injection ratios. Performance tests were conducted according to the ARI/ASHRAE standards. The performance data demonstrated that as liquid injection ratio increases, compressor head pressure and discharge temperature decrease. This has a positive effect in protecting the compressor. The effect of liquid injection on mixture behaviour varies from one mixture to another depending upon the mixture's composition. Furthermore, liquid injection appears to have a significant influence on R-410A behaviour compared to the other mixtures in question. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stability robustness of networked control systems with respect to packet loss

This paper is concerned with stability analysis of discrete-time networked control systems over a communication channel subject to packet loss whose behavior is modeled by an i.i.d Bernoulli process with a packet dropping probability bounded by a constant. A necessary and sufficient condition for stability is obtained. A packet dropping margin is introduced as a measure of stability robustness of a system against packet dropping, and a formula for it is derived. A design method is proposed for achieving a large margin subject to a constraint that the system has a set of prescribed nominal closed-loop poles.     

N-acetylcysteine does not influence the activity of endothelium-derived relaxing factor in vivo

Nitric oxide forms complexes with an array of biomolecular carriers that retain biological activity. This reactivity of nitric oxide in physiological systems has led to some dispute as to whether endothelium-derived relaxing factors nitric oxide or a closely related adduct thereof, such as a nitrosothiol. In vitro bioassays used to address this question are limited by the exclusion of biological thiols that are requisite for nitrosothiol formation. Thus, the purpose of this study was to obtain insight into the identity of endothelium-derived relaxing factor in vivo. We reasoned that if endothelium-derived relaxing factor in nitric oxide, infusion of physiological concentrations of thiol would potentiate its bioactivity by analogy with effects seen in vitro, whereas nitrosothiol would be resistant to such modulation. We used venous-occlusion plethysmography to study forearm blood flow in normal subjects. Methacholine (0.3 to 10 micrograms/min) and nitroglycerin (1 to 30 micrograms/min) were infused via the brachial artery to elicit endothelium-dependent and endothelium-independent vasodilation, respectively. Dose-response determinations were made for each drug before and after an intra-arterial infusion of the reduced thiol, N-acetylcysteine, at rates estimated to achieve a physiological concentration of 1 mmol/L. Methacholine increased forearm blood flow in a dose-dependent manner. Infusion of N-acetylcysteine did not change the sensitivity (ED50, 1.7 versus 1.7 micrograms/min, P = NS) or maximal response to methacholine. In contrast, thiol increased the sensitivity to nitroglycerin (ED50, 4.7 versus 2.8 micrograms/min, P < .01). Thus, conflicting with reports in vitro, thiol does not modulate endothelium-derived relaxing factor responses in vivo. These data indicate that sulfhydryl groups are not a limiting factor for endothelium-derived relaxing factor responses in forearm resistance vessels in normal humans and are in keeping with reports that nitrosothiol contributes to endothelium-derived relaxing factor bioactivity in plasma and vascular smooth muscle. Potentiation of the effects of nitroglycerin by N-acetylcysteine can be attributed to its enhanced biotransformation to an endothelium-derived relaxing factor equivalent, such as nitrosothiol. These observations support the notion of an equilibrium between nitric oxide and nitrosothiol in biological systems that may be influenced by redox state.     

Human Milk Antibodies against S1 and S2 Subunits from SARS-CoV-2, HCoV-OC43, and HCoV-229E in Mothers with a Confirmed COVID-19 PCR,Viral SYMPTOMS,and Unexposed Mothers

Background: Preexisting immunity to SARS-CoV-2 could be related to cross-reactive antibodies to common human-coronaviruses (HCoVs). This study aimed to evaluate whether human milk antibodies against to S1 and S2 subunits SARS-CoV-2 are cross-reactive to S1 and S2 subunits HCoV-OC43 and HCoV-229E in mothers with a confirmed COVID-19 PCR test, in mothers with previous viral symptoms during COVID-19 pandemic, and in unexposed mothers; Methods: The levels of secretory IgA (SIgA)/IgA, secretory IgM (SIgM)/IgM, and IgG specific to S1 and S2 SARS-CoV-2, and reactive to S1 + S2 HCoV-OC43, and HCoV-229E were measured in milk from 7 mothers with a confirmed COVID-19 PCR test, 20 mothers with viral symptoms, and unexposed mothers (6 Ctl1-2018 and 16 Ctl2-2018) using ELISA; Results: The S2 SARS-CoV-2 IgG levels were higher in the COVID-19 PCR (p = 0.014) and viral symptom (p = 0.040) groups than in the Ctl1-2018 group. We detected a higher number of positive correlations between the antigens and secretory antibodies in the COVID-19 PCR group than in the viral symptom and Ctl-2018 groups. S1 + S2 HCoV-OC43-reactive IgG was higher in the COVID-19 group than in the control group (p = 0.002) but did not differ for the other antibodies; Conclusions: Mothers with a confirmed COVID-19 PCR and mothers with previous viral symptoms had preexisting human milk antibodies against S2 subunit SARS-CoV-2. Human milk IgG were more specific to S2 subunit SARS-CoV-2 than other antibodies, whereas SIgA and SIgM were polyreactive and cross-reactive to S1 or S2 subunit SARS-CoV-2.     

Determination of the vapor pressures of select polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans at 75-275 °C

Vapor pressures were determined for several polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) at 75-275 °C, extending the available literature data to more relevant temperature regions and providing the first experimental data for 2,3,7-trichlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (2,3,7-TriCD). A modification of the effusion technique, based upon controlling the diffusion of the target compound and subsequent high resolution gas chromatography/low resolution mass spectrometry (HRGC/LRMS) analysis, was proven comparable to other accepted methods for determining the vapor pressures of semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs). Vapor pressures for octachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (OCDD) and octachlorodibenzofuran (OCDF) were in excellent agreement with those reported in literature. The application of the current method for the vapor pressure determinations of eight polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/dibenzofurans (PCDDs/PCDFs) in the extended temperature range (up to 275 °C) is reported. The extension of the vapor pressures to such temperatures, unprecedented for the PCDDs/Fs, is important for vapor-particle partitioning modeling in regions relevant to PCDD/F formation and control. Estimates for the melting temperatures and enthalpies of sublimation and vaporization are also reported, the latter for which no experimentally determined values have been found in the literature. The use of the method to deliver reproducible, trace concentrations (ppt-ppb) of targets was applied to the calibration of the jet-REMPI/TOFMS as an online detector for low chlorinated PCDDs/Fs.     

Determination of the pKa values of titratable groups of an antigen-antibody complex, HyHEL-5-hen egg lysozyme

The titration behavior of the ionizable residues of the HyHEL-5–henegg lysozyme complex and its individual components has beenstudied using continuum electrostatic calculations. Severalresidues of HyHEL-5 had pK_a values shifted away from model valuesfor isolated residues by more than three pH units. Shifts awayfrom the model values were smaller for the residues of hen egglysozyme. A moderate variation in the pK_a values of the titratablegroups was observed upon increase of the ionic strength from0 to 100 mM, amounting to 1–2 pH units in most cases.Under physiological conditions, the net charge of HyHEL-5 wasopposite that for hen egg lysozyme. Several residues, includingthose involved in the Arg–Glu salt bridges that have beenproposed to be important in antibody-antigen binding, had pK_avalues that were changed significantly upon binding. The maintitration event upon antibody-antigen binding appears to beloss of a proton from residue GluH50 of the Fv molecule. Thelimitations of our calculation methods and the role they mightplay in the design of antibodies for use in assays, sensorsand separations are discussed     

Effect of post-slaughter processing and freezing on the functionality of hot-boned meat from young bull

The effects of variation in the times of mincing post mortem (2, 4, or 6 h), pre-rigor salting (1.5% wt wt ) and freezing rate [fast (10 min, liquid nitrogen); medium (4-6 h at -40 °C and 0.8 m s(-1) air velocity); or slow (36-38 h at -10 °C and 0.1 m s(-1) air velocity followed by 12 h at -20 °C and 0.1 m s(-1) air velocity)] on the functionality of young bull meat were examined using hot-boned forequarters. At 52 h post packaging, the meat was thawed (72 h at 4 °C), its pH measured, and it was used to make finely comminuted batters. Cook yield and stress and strain of the cooked batters were measured. Time of mincing had no effect on meat pH, cook yield or stress and strain. There was a significant interaction (P < 0.05) between pre-rigor salting and freezing rate for pH. Freezing rate did not affect the pH of pre-rigor salted meat whereas the pH of unsalted pre-rigor meat was highest at the fastest freezing rate. Meat salted pre-rigor had a significantly (P < 0.05) higher pH than the post-rigor chilled control. Pre-rigor salting decreased the stress values of cooked batter whereas the slowest freezing rate increased stress. Stress and strain values for cooked batters from thawed meat were not significantly different from the values for batters made from the unfrozen control. Cook yields of batters made from pre-rigor frozen meat were higher than that of the postrigor control but not significantly so. The results indicate that suppliers can use pre-rigor salted and frozen meat when manufacturing comminuted products without major detrimental effects on the cook yield and texture of the finished product.     

On the quantum and randomized approximation of linear functionals on function spaces

We deal with quantum and randomized algorithms for approximating a class of linear continuous functionals. The functionals are defined on a H?lder space of functions f of d variables with r continuous partial derivatives, the rth derivative being a H?lder function with exponent ρ. For a certain class of such linear problems (which includes the integration problem), we define algorithms based on partitioning the domain of f into a large number of small subdomains, and making use of the well-known quantum or randomized algorithms for summation of real numbers. For N information evaluations (quantum queries in the quantum setting), we show upper bounds on the error of order N ^−(γ+1) in the quantum setting, and N ^−(γ+1/2) in the randomized setting, where γ = (r + ρ)/d is the regularity parameter. Hence, we obtain for a wider class of linear problems the same upper bounds as those known for the integration problem. We give examples of functionals satisfying the assumptions, among which we discuss functionals defined on the solution of Fredholm integral equations of the second kind, with complete information about the kernel. We also provide lower bounds, showing in some cases sharpness of the obtained results, and compare the power of quantum, randomized and deterministic algorithms for the exemplary problems.