The biological mechanisms of butanol tolerance and the application of solvent-tolerant bacteria for environmental protection

Toxicity caused by the accumulation of butanol in fermentation media is an important factor limiting the concentration of butanol. There is currently no systematic research in place investigating the butanol tolerance mechanism of bacteria such as Clostridium acetobutylicum, which adapts to butanol stress and regulates its growth and metabolism. Here, research results related to the butanol tolerance of C. acetobutylicum are reviewed to understand the molecular basis of changes in butanol-tolerant strains. Organic solvent-tolerant bacteria play an important role in the fields of biofuel production, enzyme preparation and bioremediation. An analysis of limitations of the application of organic solvent-tolerant bacteria has revealed that future research should focus on combining the microbial tolerance phenotype with specific utilization to achieve an optimal balance between organic solvent tolerance and production. This review serves as a reference for the improvement and engineering of strains that tolerate organic solvents. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry     

Damage mechanism at different transpassive potentials of solution-annealed 316 and 316l stainless steels

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), anodic polarization and scanning electron microscopy techniques were used to investigate the damage mechanism in the transpassive potential region of AISI ...     

Visceral Obesity and Its Shared Role in Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease: A Scoping Review of the Pathophysiology and Pharmacological Treatments

The association between obesity, cancer and cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been demonstrated in animal and epidemiological studies. However, the specific role of visceral obesity on cancer and CVD remains unclear. Visceral adipose tissue (VAT) is a complex and metabolically active tissue, that can produce different adipokines and hormones, responsible for endocrine-metabolic comorbidities. This review explores the potential mechanisms related to VAT that may also be involved in cancer and CVD. In addition, we discuss the shared pharmacological treatments which may reduce the risk of both diseases. This review highlights that chronic inflammation, molecular aspects, metabolic syndrome, secretion of hormones and adiponectin associated to VAT may have synergistic effects and should be further studied in relation to cancer and CVD. Reductions in abdominal and visceral adiposity improve insulin sensitivity, lipid profile and cytokines, which consequently reduce the risk of CVD and some cancers. Several medications have shown to reduce visceral and/or subcutaneous fat. Further research is needed to investigate the pathophysiological mechanisms by which visceral obesity may cause both cancer and CVD. The role of visceral fat in cancer and CVD is an important area to advance. Public health policies to increase public awareness about VAT’s role and ways to manage or prevent it are needed.     

油田污水处理及酸化缓蚀剂的应用

介绍了油田污水处理及酸化中的几类缓蚀剂,重点介绍了咪唑啉型缓蚀剂、膦系缓蚀剂、曼尼希碱、炔醇等四类目前使用较多的缓蚀剂。结合缓蚀剂的分子结构阐述了其作用机理,论述了污水用缓蚀剂和酸化用缓蚀剂分子结构的区别及原因,并探讨了今后研究和发展的方向。     

Elimination of organic matter present in wastewaters from the cork industry by membrane filtration

BACKGROUND: The first stage of the cork industrial process generates great volumes of wastewater with moderate to high organic pollutant content that must be purified using different procedures, such as filtration by membranes. RESULTS: The tangential filtration of these wastewaters was studied using two different laboratory equipments. In the first one, three ultrafiltration (UF) membranes were tested, with molecular weight cut‐off (MWCO) 100 kDa and 30 kDa, and two operating modes were used: total recycling of permeate and retentate streams, and in continuous mode, without recycling both streams. In the total recycling UF experiments, the influence of the operating variables on the permeate flux was first established. The effectiveness of the different membranes was determined by evaluating the rejection coefficients for several parameters that measure the global pollutant content of the effluent. The values found for these rejection coefficients were in the following order: ellagic acid and color > absorbance at 254 nm > tannic content > COD (chemical oxygen demand). In the continuous mode experiments, the fouling mechanism for each membrane was established by fitting the experimental data to various filtration fouling models given in the literature. The operating mode in the second equipment was batch concentration, and additional experiments were carried out with an UF membrane (2 kDa), and with a NF membrane (with MWCO in the range 150–300 Da). CONCLUSIONS: The three operating modes tested provided different rejection levels of organic matter; among them, the most effective procedure tested was batch concentration mode using a NF membrane. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry     

Motor fluency deficits in the sequencing of actions in schizophrenia.

Many everyday activities depend on the capacity to organize and smoothly execute motor sequences. The authors tested the hypothesis that a sequencing deficit is associated with schizophrenia. They used a new method to distinguish between lower and higher order mechanisms for the impairment. The 1st task involved triggered sequences in which sensory information from 1 movement was the cue for initiation of the following movement. Results showed that the motor sequences were performed as fluently in patients as in controls. The 2nd and 3rd tasks involved sequences in which the entire movement sequence could be preplanned. Patients executed the sequences less fluently than controls but only under the condition where action sequences were required. Furthermore, the patients' fluency deficit increased with sequence complexity. The high discrimination power of Task 3 gave the authors a means to control for a potential psychometric confound involving differential discriminating power and to argue in favor of a specific higher order motor fluency deficit in patients with schizophrenia. It is suggested that basic lower order mechanisms that integrate sensory information with outgoing motor commands are preserved in schizophrenia, whereas higher order integrative mechanisms that are required for the smooth coordination of motor sequences are impaired. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

DIDS: rapidly prototyping configuration design systems

The domain independent design system (DIDS) provides a set of tools for rapidly constructing new configuration design systems from a library of reusable software elements called mechanisms. A DIDS user begins by creating a model of the problem domain and the task to be automated. This includes describing a library of parts from which new artifacts could be configured, optimization and preference criteria, and functionality constraints. DIDS analyzes this input and automatically builds an operational prototype system by selecting and combining mechanisms. DIDS' ability to automate this process is derived from its model of configuration design, which enables reusable mechanisms to be identified and automatically selected based on a problem's characteristics. The use of DIDS is illustrated by showing how DIDS solved an elevator-configuration problem.