Activity

The original mechanical set-up to test the blood-material interaction helped to prove that acrylic acid-based coatings expressed good haemocompatible properties.Countries with abundant solar radiation have the potential to invest in simple technologies for deactivation of many bacteria and viruses in medical solid waste. In addition to the traditional Infection and Prevention Control (IPC) measures, these simple technologies contribute to better protection of health care workers in countries with compromised solid management schemes. Monitoring of temperature, relative humidity and ultraviolet inside containers soundly designed to collect disposal infectious waste illustrated to deactivate several viruses and bacteria. Casanova et al., 2010, used some surrogate viruses to overcome the challenges of working with SARS-CoV, concluded that by temperature above 40 °C most of viruses become below levels of detection after 90 min. Here we are proposing a model of a simple transparent container almost 200 L in volume that allow solar energy to be accumulated inside. In summer conditions in the testing site, temperature inside the container reached above 50 °C when the ambient air temperature was around 30 °C. The container was built using epoxy glass to guarantee maximum heat penetration. Actual temperature measurement inside the container was measured in real time against ambient air temperature. We present a mathematical model for predication of maximum temperature at different positions inside the container and their relation to different ambient air temperature scenarios. The mathematical formulas used are based on the conservation laws and a good agreement of a full month of field measurements were obtained. Even in winter conditions in many of developing countries air temperature can maintain levels above 20 °C, which will produce temperature around 30 °C and viruses can reach levels below detection limit in maximum 3 h.

The viscosity of water-in-oil Pickering emulsions may dramatically increase upon cooling. The solvation of the long-chain alkyl groups grafted on the particles stabilizer is the likely cause of the strong dependence of rheological property on temperature. Thus, we hypothesize that silica nanoparticles (NPs) grafted with short-chain alkyl groups can stabilize Pickering emulsions, yielding weakly temperature-dependent rheological property.

Using alkyl-grafted (methyl, octyl, and octadecyl) silica NPs as emulsifiers, the rheological properties and microstructure of the water-in-oil Pickering, as well as the solvation of the silica NPs, were studied using diffusing-wave spectroscopy microrheology measurements, confocal laser scanning microscopy, and low-field nuclear magnetic resonance measurements.

The use of methyl- and octadecyl-grafted silica NPs, which have almost identical optimum contact angles, to stabilize emulsions dramatically reduced the effect of cooling on the viscosity. Moreover, the emulsions stabilized by these methyl-grafted silica NPs exhibited nearly constant rheological properties as the temperature decreased from 75 to 5°C. The nearly constant rheological properties are attributed to the nearly constant solvation in this temperature range. U0126 These materials have potential applications in the cosmetics and petroleum industries.

The use of methyl- and octadecyl-grafted silica NPs, which have almost identical optimum contact angles, to stabilize emulsions dramatically reduced the effect of cooling on the viscosity. Moreover, the emulsions stabilized by these methyl-grafted silica NPs exhibited nearly constant rheological properties as the temperature decreased from 75 to 5 °C. The nearly constant rheological properties are attributed to the nearly constant solvation in this temperature range. These materials have potential applications in the cosmetics and petroleum industries.A solid acid catalyst prepared by sulfonated Sargassum horneri carbon was utilized for the esterification reaction of oleic acid and methanol. The formed amorphous carbon layers during carbonization and the access of sulfonic acid groups during sulfonation can catalyze the esterification reaction for biodiesel preparation efficiently. The catalyst was characterized by various methods to investigate its physical and chemical properties. With carbonization at 300 °C for 2 h followed by sulfonation at 90 °C for 5 h, the catalyst reached acid density of 1.40 mmol/g. The catalyst dosage, methanol/oleic acid (molar ratio), reaction temperature, and reaction time were optimized to 10 wt%, 151, 70 °C, and 3 h, respectively. Under the optimal condition, the conversion of oleic acid reached 96.4%. Additionally, the catalyst was regenerated after four cycles, with the conversion of oleic acid still reaching 95.4%.In this study, a laboratory-scale sequencing batch reactor (SBR) equipped with aerobic granular sludge (AGS) technology was continuously operated for 220 days to remove ammonium from an existing landfill leachate. The ammonium removal was characterized by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) technology. This method helped to analyze the long-term community structural stability of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB), nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) and denitrifying bacteria (DB) throughout the experiment. Simultaneously, 16S rRNA gene cloning and sequencing analysis identified the dominant species of different microbial species. Experimental results confirmed that ammonium removal was inhibited at the high nitrogen loading rate (NLR) stage while the low NLR stage achieved satisfactory ammonium removal. Moreover, the findings demonstrated that functionally stable wastewater treatment bioreactors facilitated the occurrence of stable microbial community structures.Anaerobic wastewater treatment process is efficient but unstable due to various disturbances, such as refractory organics and influent organic overloading. Therefore, sensitive and accurate status diagnosis is important for reasonable control to improve the stability of anaerobic process. In this study, an online intelligent expert diagnosis system for anaerobic process was established based on moving average convergence and divergence (MACD) indexes of gas- and liquid-phase parameters, combined with online monitoring system and expert diagnosis database. The effect of this diagnosis system was verified through refractory organics and organic overloading shock experiments. Results showed that this diagnosis system could make rapid, accurate and comprehensive diagnosis, predictions and early-warning. MACD algorithm could enhance pattern recognition capacity of status parameters, overcome the lagging of anaerobic process and filter irregular noisy fluctuations of status parameters. MACD index of H2 partial pressure is suitable as sensitive early-warning indicator in the initial shock stage.