Environmental issues, such as the fossil energy crisis, have resulted in increased public attention to use bioethanol as an alternative renewable energy. For ethanol production, water and nutrient ...consumption has become increasingly important factors being considered by the bioethanol industry as reducing the consumption of these resources would decrease the overall cost of ethanol production. Biogas slurry contains not only large amounts of wastewater, but also the nutrients required for microbial growth, e.g., nitrogen, ammonia, phosphate, and potassium. Therefore, biogas slurry is an attractive potential resource for bioethanol production that could serve as an alternative to process water and nitrogen sources.
In this study, we propose a method that replaces the process water and nitrogen sources needed for cellulosic ethanol production by
with biogas slurry. To test the efficacy of these methods, corn straw degradation following pretreatment with diluted NaOH and enzymatic hydrolysis in the absence of fresh water was evaluated. Then, ethanol fermentation using the ethanologenic bacterial strain
ZMT2 was conducted without supplementing with additional nitrogen sources. After pretreatment with 1.34% NaOH (w/v) diluted in 100% biogas slurry and continuous enzymatic hydrolysis for 144 h, 29.19 g/L glucose and 12.76 g/L xylose were generated from 30 g dry corn straw. The maximum ethanol concentration acquired was 13.75 g/L, which was a yield of 72.63% ethanol from the hydrolysate medium. Nearly 94.87% of the ammonia nitrogen was depleted and no nitrate nitrogen remained after ethanol fermentation. The use of biogas slurry as an alternative to process water and nitrogen sources may decrease the cost of cellulosic ethanol production by 10.0-20.0%. By combining pretreatment with NaOH diluted in biogas slurry, enzymatic hydrolysis, and ethanol fermentation, 56.3 kg of ethanol was produced by
ZMT-2 through fermentation of 1000 kg of dried corn straw.
In this study, biogas slurry replaced process water and nitrogen sources during cellulosic ethanol production. The results suggest that biogas slurry is a potential alternative to water when pretreating corn straw and, thus, has important potential applications in cellulosic ethanol production from corn straw. This study not only provides a novel method for utilizing biogas slurry, but also demonstrates a means of reducing the overall cost of cellulosic ethanol.
Recent findings found that TiO
nanoparticles (TiO
-NPs) have male reproductive toxicity. However, few reports have studied the toxicity of TiO
-NPs in crustaceans. In this study, we first chose the ...freshwater crustacean Eriocheir sinensis (E. sinensis) to explore the male toxicity of TiO
-NP exposure and the underlying mechanisms. Three nm and 25 nm TiO
-NPs at a dose of 30 mg/kg bw induced apoptosis and damaged the integrity of the haemolymph-testis-barrier (HTB, a structure similar to the blood-testis-barrier) and the structure of the seminiferous tubule. The 3-nm TiO
-NPs caused more severe spermatogenesis dysfunction than the 25-nm TiO
-NPs. We initially confirmed that TiO
-NP exposure affected the expression patterns of adherens junctions (α-catenin and β-catenin) and induced tubulin disorganization in the testis of E. sinensis. TiO
-NP exposure caused reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and an imbalance of mTORC1-mTORC2 (mTORC1/rps6/Akt levels were increased, while mTORC2 activity was not changed). After using the ROS scavenger NAC to inhibit ROS generation, both the mTORC1-mTORC2 imbalance and alterations in AJs were rescued. More importantly, the mTORC1 inhibitor rapamycin abolished mTORC1/rps6/Akt hyperactivation and partially restored the alterations in AJs and tubulin. Collectively, the mTORC1-mTORC2 imbalance induced by TiO
-NPs was involved in the mechanism of AJ and HTB disruption, resulting in spermatogenesis in E. sinensis.
Fifty-five representative samples of Rhizoctonia solani isolates, which were collected and isolated from five different ecological regions in Sichuan Province, China, were purified and analyzed for ...the pathogenicity and molecular genetic variation. The hyphal fusion test revealed that almost all the isolates belonged to the AG-IIA group except the isolate D42. In addition, some of the isolates were ＇bridging isolates＇, which could fuse with several groups simultaneously. The pathogenicity analysis on in vitro leaves confirmed a significant pathogenicity variation in the tested isolates. The 55 isolates were then classified into 8 groups by further RAPD （randomly amplified polymorphic DNA） cluster analysis at the similarity coefficient of 0.941. The results suggest that under the certain ecological conditions in Sichuan Province, China, most of the R. solanistrains were genetically stable, but a few changed drastically.
Transient global cerebral ischemia (tGCI) causes excessive release of glutamate from neurons. Astrocytic glutamate transporter-1 (GLT-1) and glutamine synthetase (GS) together play a predominant role ...in maintaining glutamate at normal extracellular concentrations. Though our previous studies reported the alleviation of tGCI-induced neuronal death by hypoxic preconditioning (HPC) in hippocampal Cornu Ammonis 1 (CA1) of adult rats, the underlying mechanism has not yet been fully elaborated. In this study, we aimed to investigate the roles of GLT-1 and GS in the neuroprotection mediated by HPC against tGCI and to ascertain whether these roles can be regulated by connexin 43 (Cx43) and cellular-Src (c-Src) activity. We found that HPC decreased the level of extracellular glutamate in CA1 after tGCI via maintenance of GLT-1 expression and GS activity. Inhibition of GLT-1 expression with dihydrokainate (DHK) or inhibition of GS activity with methionine sulfoximine (MSO) abolished the neuroprotection induced by HPC. Also, HPC markedly upregulated Cx43 and inhibited p-c-Src expression in CA1 after tGCI, whereas inhibition of Cx43 with Gap26 dramatically reversed this effect. Furthermore, inhibition of p-c-Src with 4-amino-5-(4-chlorophenyl)-7-(t-butyl) pyrazolo (3, 4-d) pyrimidine (PP2) decreased c-Src activity, increased protein levels of GLT-1 and Cx43, enhanced GS activity, and thus reduced extracellular glutamate level in CA1 after tGCI. Collectively, our data demonstrated that reduced extracellular glutamate induced by HPC against tGCI through preventing the reduction of GLT-1 expression and maintaining GS activity in hippocampal CA1, which was mediated by upregulating Cx43 expression and inhibiting c-Src activity.
Power exchange needs to design a mechanism, which can achieve the internalization of environmental costs of power generation enterprises, thus maximizing the social environmental benefits. Two-stage ...optimization models of energy-saving and emission-reducing for coal-fired power plant are established. In the first stage model, maximums of the social environmental benefits and energy-saving effect are taken as the objective functions with consideration of the unit output constraints, load constraints and emissions constraints, etc. In the second stage model, maximums of power generation enterprises profits are taken as the objective functions with the constraints of KKT conditions of the first stage model. The proposed marginal incentive pricing mechanism not only controlls CO2 emissions from the total amount, but also improves emissions treatment initiative of coal-fired power generation enterprises. A numerical example shows that the proposed model and algorithm can achieve the effect of saving energy, reducing emission and encouraging competition during the process of generation.
To compare the application of HE and enzyme histochemical staining in assessing the viability of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells coagulated by microwave ablation at different temperatures.
Two ...groups of mice (n=6) with transplanted homogenic HCC were treated by microwave ablation at 60 degrees C and 50 degrees C for 3 min, respectively. Before and after microwave ablation, paraffin sections and frozen sections of the tumors were prepared for routine HE staining and enzyme histochemical staining with nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide diaphorase (NADH-diaphorase), respectively, and observed under microscope.
Shortly after microwave ablation, the morphology and arrangements of the nucleus of the ablated tumor cells in the two groups showed no obvious alteration in HE stained sections, but in sections with enzyme histochemical staining, the activity of NADH-diaphorase in ablated tumor tissue at 60 degrees C disappeared, suggesting the death of HCC cells; sporadic activity of the enzyme was detected in the co
An artificial neural network (ANN) model was developed for simulating and predicting critical dimension dc of glass forming alloys. A group of Zr-Al-Ni-Cu and Cu-Zr-Ti-Ni bulk metallic glasses were ...designed based on the dc and their dc values were predicted by the ANN model. Zr-Al-Ni-Cu and Cu-Zr-Ti-Ni bulk metallic glasses were prepared by injecting into copper mold. The amorphous structures and the determination of the dc of as-cast alloys were ascertained using X-ray diffraction. The results show that the predicted dc values of glass forming alloys are in agreement with the corresponding experimental values. Thus the developed ANN model is reliable and adequate for designing the composition and predicting the dc of glass forming alloy.
There is potential for using Ga and Ga-based alloys as low temperature bonding materials in electronic packaging. This study investigates the interfacial reactions between liquid Ga and Cu-xNi ...(x = 0, 2, 6, 10, 14 wt%) substrates at room temperature using Synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction and analytical scanning/transmission electron microscopy, and subsequently examines the lap shear strength of these joints. The concentration of Ni in the substrate has a strong effect on both the type of intermetallics that form and their rate of growth. Mechanisms of intermetallic growth and the strength of the joints fabricated with the Cu-xNi substrates are discussed along with the crystallography of the intermetallics and methods of joining.
Display omitted
•Load bearing Cu-xNi/Ga/Cu-xNi lap joints were prepared in a room temperature process.•The Ni concentration in Cu-xNi substrates affects the intermetallic phases formed.•The Ni concentration in Cu-xNi substrates affects the intermetallic growth kinetics.•Intermetallics grow fastest on the Cu–6Ni substrate at 30 °C.•The lap shear strength of joints fabricated with Cu–6Ni substrates are the highest.
Using the functional connectivity analysis based on the underlying neurophysiological characteristic that epileptic discharges can induce change of brain default mode, to develop a technique for ...epileptogenic localization using functional MRI (fMRI) without simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG).
A data-driven method that jointly employed independent component analysis and functional connectivity analysis was used for the resting functional MRI data analysis of 12 focal epileptic patients. The independent components were ranged according to the coefficients of the negative correlation between independent component time course and the signal temporal course in the region of posterior cingulate cortex. The results were comparatively studied with simultaneous EEG-fMRI.
In the 10 successful results from 12 patients underwent EEG-fMRI examination, the outcomes of eight subjects were concordant with pathological foci. While the results of all 10 patients processed by data-driven method were concordant with patho
Gallium (Ga) and Ga-based alloys have attracted much attention in the microelectronics industry due to their low melting points at room temperature and below. Compared to traditional Sn-based solder ...alloys, which require processing at 240 °C and above, near-room temperature liquid sintering with Ga-based alloys reduces energy costs and prevents damage to heat-sensitive electrical components during the soldering process. Mechanically sound joints depend on the formation of higher melting point intermetallic compounds (IMCs) such as CuGa2, the main IMC that forms between Ga- and Cu-based substrates, which has certain desirable properties compared to the IMCs formed from the reaction between traditional Sn-based alloys and Cu substrates. However, the reaction between Ga and commonly used Cu substrates is slow, and the IMCs do not form within practical time frames, hindering the application of Ga-based solder alloys. To accelerate the reaction between Ga-based alloys and substrates during soldering, it is essential to know the mechanisms behind the formation of the IMCs. This study investigates the reaction between liquid Ga and Cu-6 wt %Ni substrates during heating and cooling using in situ synchrotron imaging. It is shown that the formation behavior of CuGa2 differs during the heating and cooling processes. The results of ex situ experiments and density functional theory (DFT) calculation are compared with the in situ experiments to provide insights into the reaction between Ga- and Cu-based substrates.
PDF
