Transition Metal Exchanged Zeolite Layers for Selectivity Enhancement of Metal-Oxide Semiconductor Gas Sensors

A novel method of improving the selectivity of metal oxide gas sensors has been developed by using catalytically active molecular sieve materials. They have been successfully introduced into a proprietary sensor array. The cracking patterns of linear alkanes over transition metal exchanged zeolite Y have been measured using a zeolite bed/GC/MS experimental set-up within a temperature range of 300degC to 400degC. Studies have been carried out regarding the effects of metal loading, zeolite type, material fabrication techniques, and operating temperature in relation to catalytic activity and selectivity. The composite sensors utilising the novel zeolite materials have been used in a custom built sensor rig that houses three dual electrode sensors and can measure real-time responses of these sensors to an introduced headspace generated from organic liquids     

Anaerobic digestion of olive mill wastewater in a periodic anaerobic baffled reactor (PABR) followed by further effluent purification via membrane separation technologies

BACKGROUND: The combined treatment of olive mill wastewater (OMWW) by applying the anaerobic digestion process and further treatment in a system consisting of filters and membranes is presented. The anaerobic digestion of the OMWW took place in a high rate system, the periodic anaerobic baffled reactor (PABR). Application of the membrane system aimed at purifying the anaerobic effluent. RESULTS: An increase in the organic loading rate was achieved by increasing the influent chemical oxygen demand (COD) and alternatively by decreasing the hydraulic retention time (HRT). The first option caused process failure, since the volatile fatty acids accumulation resulted in negligible biogas production. In contrast, the second change (decrease in HRT) led to stable operation that permitted the reduction of the HRT to 3.75 d and increase of the organic loading rate to 8.9 g tCOD L^?1 d^?1 with satisfactory total COD removal (72%). Higher total COD removal (up to 80%) was observed at lower organic loading rates (<3.5 g tCOD L^?1 d^?1). Further purification in the membrane units resulted in a final permeate of less than 0.1 g tCOD L^?1. The membrane systems proved to be more efficient on the anaerobic effluent than on the raw OMWW (the final permeate in that case contained 1g tCOD L^?1). CONCLUSIONS: The anaerobic digestion of OMWW in a PABR was stable even at high organic loading rates. Filtering and membrane fractionation of the PABR effluent resulted in a final permeate stream of high quality, suitable for irrigation and/or reuse in the proposed operating scheme for diluting the OMWW prior to anaerobic digestion. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry     

Molecular events including p53 and k-ras alterations in the in vitro progression of a human colorectal adenoma cell line to an adenocarcinoma

The aim of the current study was to identify genetic abnormalities in human colorectal adenoma and carcinoma derived cell lines, and to determine whether the genetic changes which occur in vitro are relevant to the in vivo situation. Loss of 1p(33-35) region was shown to be the most common chromosome 1 abnormality and loss of heterozygosity (LOH) of the DCC gene and/or adjacent sequences was detected in all adenoma derived cells as well as the carcinoma cell lines. The level of p53 protein was also investigated as increased cellular p53 protein had previously been associated with mutation of the p53 gene. A further aim was to investigate genetic changes in our in vitro model of tumour progression, where the adenoma derived PC/AA cell line has previously been converted in vitro to two distinct tumorigenic phenotypes, producing either an adenocarcinoma or a mucinous carcinoma in athymic nude mice. Progression to the adenocarcinoma phenotype was shown to involve a specific chromosome 1 rearrangement, loss of both normal copies of chromosome 18 (although DCC gene sequences were retained), loss of the remaining wild type allele of k-ras resulting in homozygosity for the k-ras codon 12 mutation and increased cellular p53 protein as detected by SDS-PAGE Western blotting. The increase in p53 protein was shown not to be due to the acquisition of a mutation in the p53 gene. Interestingly, progression of the adenoma derived PC/AA cell line to the mucinous malignant phenotype did not involve any of these molecular rearrangements, suggesting that different genetically distinct pathways are involved in colorectal carcinogenesis. These studies show that the genetic changes in our in vitro model of human colorectal tumour progression are similar to those observed in in vivo studies.     

Ozone Treatment of Sewage Works' Final Effluent

This paper describes a laboratory-based study which was designed to investigate (a) the changes in selected physico-chemical properties of a sewage-works' final effluent after ozonation, and (b) the effect of ozone on the concentration of organic halides and effluent toxicity and mutagenicity. Different conditions were studied involving the application of ozone concentrations up to 13.5% w/w and the ozonation of the effluent under both constant and variable ozonation rates.     

Study of LiMgVO4 electrical conductivity mechanism

This paper deals with impedance spectroscopy on single-phase polycrystalline LiMgVO₄ in the temperature range of 25–500 °C. Thermogravimetric measurements show a weight loss of 2.7% in the temperature range between 25 °C and 175 °C due to humidity desorption. A conductivity mechanism along the grain boundaries (agb) is identified in the specific temperature range and is attributed to a reversible humidity absorption–desorption mechanism. Equivalent circuits are drawn using the results of the impedance measurements at each temperature. A unique conduction process within the material is assigned to each element of the equivalent circuit and Arrhenius plots are plotted. The calculation of activation energy of each conduction mechanism is based on the Arrhenius plots. The activation energy E_b of the bulk conductivity mechanism was found to be 0.62 eV. The activation energy E_gb of the grain boundaries conductivity mechanism was found to be 1.03 eV up to 275 °C and 0.50 eV in the temperature range of 300–500 °C. The absence of the conductivity mechanism along the grain boundaries above 175 °C can only be due to the complete removal of water from the material's grains.     

Computation of light scattering by axisymmetric nonspherical particles and comparison with experimental results

A laboratory prototype of a novel experimental apparatus for the analysis of spherical and axisymmetric nonspherical particles in liquid suspensions has been developed. This apparatus determines shape, volume, and refractive index, and this is the main difference of this apparatus from commercially available particle analyzers. Characterization is based on the scattering of a monochromatic laser beam by particles [which can be inorganic, organic, or biological (such as red blood cells and bacteria)] and on the strong relation between the light-scattering pattern and the morphology and the volume, shape, and refractive index of the particles. To keep things relatively simple, first we focus attention on axisymmetrical particles, in which case hydrodynamic alignment can be used to simplify signal gathering and processing. Fast and reliable characterization is achieved by comparison of certain properly selected characteristics of the scattered-light pattern with the corresponding theoretical values, which are readily derived from theoretical data and are stored in a look-up table. The data in this table were generated with a powerful boundary-element method, which can solve the direct scattering problem for virtually arbitrary shapes. A specially developed fast pattern-recognition technique makes possible the on-line characterization of axisymmetric particles. Successful results with red blood cells and bacteria are presented.     

New test structure for VLSI self-test: the structured test register (STR)

A new test structure which facilitates self-test in digital VLSI integrated circuits is presented. This test structure, termed the structured test register (STR), is constructed by adding some extra components to an otherwise standard BILBO. The advantages of this circuit in terms of increased fault coverage on both the functional and self-test parts of the circuit are described.     

Apoptosis in colorectal tumour cells: induction by the short chain fatty acids butyrate, propionate and acetate and by the bile salt deoxycholate

The short chain fatty acids acetate, propionate and butyrate are produced when dietary fibre is fermented by the colonic bacteria. We have previously shown that sodium butyrate induces apoptosis in 3 colorectal tumour cell lines. We have extended our study to 3 adenoma and 4 carcinoma cell lines and investigated whether propionate and acetate also induce apoptosis. All 3 short chain fatty acids induced apoptosis at physiological concentrations, but of the 3, butyrate was the most effective. Since these fatty acids are produced as a result of bacterial fermentation of dietary fibre, this may in part explain the correlation between a high-fibre diet and low colorectal cancer incidence. Sodium butyrate induced apoptosis in all 7 of the cell lines studied; however, 2 of the 4 carcinoma cell lines (PC/JW/FI and S/KS/FI) were more resistant to butyrate-induced apoptosis than the 3 adenoma cell lines, suggesting that at least some carcinomas may evolve mechanisms to protect the cells from the induction of apoptosis. The bile acid deoxycholic acid has previously been reported as a possible tumour promoter in the large intestine and its levels are reduced by dietary fibre. Concentrations of between 10 nM and 0.1 mM had no effect on either the proliferation or apoptosis of colonic tumour cells in vitro. However, a significant induction of apoptosis was obtained at a concentration of 0.5 mM. These results may have significance for the aetiology of colorectal cancer.