Search results for: proteins separation

Authors: Mahmoud Abdulhamid, Rifan Hardian, Prashant Bhatt, Shuvo Datta, Adrian Ramirez, Jorge Gascon, Mohamed Eddaoudi, Gyorgy Szekely

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Polybenzimidazole (PBI) is a high-performance polymer that exhibits high thermal and chemical stability. However, it suffers from low porosity and low fractional free volume, which hinder its application as separation material. Herein, we demonstrate the molecular engineering of gas separation materials by manipulating a PBI backbone possessing kinked moieties. PBI was selected as it contains NH groups which increase the affinity towards CO₂, increase sorption capacity, and favors CO₂ over other gasses. We have designed and synthesized an intrinsically microporous polybenzimidazole (iPBI) featuring a spirobisindane structure. Introducing a kinked moiety in conjunction with crosslinking enhanced the polymer properties, markedly increasing the gas separation performance. In particular, the BET surface area of PBI increased 30-fold by replacing a flat benzene ring with a kinked structure. iPBI displayed a good CO₂ uptake of 1.4 mmol g⁻¹ at 1 bar and 3.6 mmol g⁻¹ at 10 bar. Gas sorption uptake and breakthrough experiments were conducted using mixtures of CO₂/CH₄ (50%/50%) and CO₂/N₂ (50%/50%), which revealed the high selectivity of CO₂ over both CH₄ and N₂. The obtained CO₂/N₂ selectivity is attractive for power plant flue gas application requiring CO₂ capturing materials. Energy and process simulations of biogas CO₂ removal demonstrated that up to 70% of the capture energy could be saved when iPBI was used rather than the current amine technology (methyl diethanolamine [MDEA]). Similarly, the combination of iPBI and MDEA in a hybrid system exhibited the highest CO₂ capture yield (99%), resulting in nearly 50% energy saving. The concept of enhancing the porosity of PBI using kinked moieties provides new scope for designing highly porous polybenzimidazoles for various separation processes.

Keywords: polybenzimidazole (PBI), intrinsically microporous polybenzimidazole (iPBI), gas separation, pnergy and process simulations

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Authors: Y. H. Hwang, J. Won, Y. S. Kang

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Since ionic liquids have a special interaction with gas specially CO2 and/or olefin, supported ionic liquids membrane (SILM) are fabricated for practical gas separation. However, SILM has a problem in practical application due to the low mechanical stability under high pressure for gas separation. In order to improve the mechanical strength of the selective ionic liquid layer, we prepared supported ion gel membrane by the formation of gel on the surface of Nylon support. The ion gel was prepared by the addition of poly(styrene-block-ethyleneoxide-block-styrene) triblock copolymer in four tricyanomethanide ionic liquids have different cation; 1-ethyl-3-methlyimidazolium tricyanomethanide, 1-butyl-3-methlyimidazolium tricyanomethanide, 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium tricyanomethanide, 1-butyl-4-methylpyridinium tricyanomethanide using methylenechloride as a solvent. The characters of ion gel with different cation were studied. Four different gases (CO2, N2, O2, and CH4) permeance were measured at room temperature by bubble flow meter and cation effect of tricyanomethanide ionic liquids investigated.

Keywords: membrane, ionic liquid, ion gel, nanostructure

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Authors: Sreevalli Bokka

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The process of reducing the intensity of the carbon from a process or stream into the atmosphere is termed Decarbonization. Of the various technologies that are emerging to capture or reduce carbon intensity, membranes are emerging as a key player in separating carbon from a gas stream, such as industrial effluent air and others. Due to the advantage of high surface area and low flow resistance, fiber membranes are emerging widely for gas separation applications. A fiber membrane is a semipermeable barrier that is increasingly used for filtration and separation applications needing high packing density. A few of the many applications are in water desalination, medical applications, bioreactors, and gas separations applications. Only a few polymeric membranes were studied for fabricating fiber membranes such as cellulose acetate, Polysulfone, and Polyvinylidene fluoride. A few of the challenges of using fiber membranes are fouling and weak mechanical properties, leading to the breakage of membranes. In this work, the growth of fiber membranes and challenges for future developments in the filtration and gas separation applications are presented.

Keywords: membranes, filtration, separations, polymers, carbon capture

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Authors: H. Sakamoto, S. Kurosawa, M. Suzuki, S. Oguri

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In Arabidopsis, several genes encoding proteins with ankyrin repeats and trans-membrane domains (AtANKTM) have been identified as mediators of biotic and abiotic stress responses. It has been known that the expression of an AtANKTM gene, At2g24600, is induced in response to abiotic stress and that there are four splicing variants derived from this locus. In this study, by RT-PCR and sequencing analysis, an unknown splicing variant of the At2g24600 transcript was identified. Based on differences in the predicted amino acid sequences, the five splicing variants are divided into three groups. The three predicted proteins are highly homologous, yet have different numbers of ankyrin repeats and trans-membrane domains. It is generally considered that ankyrin repeats mediate protein-protein interaction and that the number of trans-membrane domains affects membrane topology of proteins. The protein variants derived from the At2g24600 locus may have different molecular functions each other.

Keywords: alternative splicing, ankyrin repeats, trans-membrane domains, arabidopsis

Procedia PDF Downloads 346

Authors: Han Longxiang

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In the process of treating industrial oily wastewater with complex components, the traditional treatment methods (flotation, coagulation, microwave heating, etc.) often produce high operating costs, secondary pollution, and other problems. In order to solve these problems, the materials with high flux and stability applied to surfactant-stabilized emulsions separation have gained huge attention in the treatment of oily wastewater. Nevertheless, four stable oil-in-water emulsions can be formed due to different surfactants (surfactant-free, anionic surfactant, cationic surfactant, and non-ionic surfactant), and the previous advanced materials can only separate one or several of them, cannot effectively separate in one step. Herein, a facile synthesis method of graphene-based multilevel filter materials (GMFM) which can efficiently separate the oil-in-water emulsions stabilized with different surfactants only through its gravity. The prepared materials with high stability of 20 cycles show a high flux of ~ 5000 L m-2 h-1 with a high separation efficiency of > 99.9 %. GMFM can effectively separate the emulsion stabilized by mixed surfactants and oily wastewater from factories. The results indicate that the GMFM have a wide range of applications in oil-in-water emulsions separation in industry and environmental science.

Keywords: emulsion, filtration, graphene, one-step

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Authors: Jing Wu, Wei Lv, Yibing Li, Yuanfan You

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The separation of speech signals has become a research hotspot in the field of signal processing in recent years. It has many applications and influences in teleconferencing, hearing aids, speech recognition of machines and so on. The sounds received are usually noisy. The issue of identifying the sounds of interest and obtaining clear sounds in such an environment becomes a problem worth exploring, that is, the problem of blind source separation. This paper focuses on the under-determined blind source separation (UBSS). Sparse component analysis is generally used for the problem of under-determined blind source separation. The method is mainly divided into two parts. Firstly, the clustering algorithm is used to estimate the mixing matrix according to the observed signals. Then the signal is separated based on the known mixing matrix. In this paper, the problem of mixing matrix estimation is studied. This paper proposes an improved algorithm to estimate the mixing matrix for speech signals in the UBSS model. The traditional potential algorithm is not accurate for the mixing matrix estimation, especially for low signal-to noise ratio (SNR).In response to this problem, this paper considers the idea of an improved potential function method to estimate the mixing matrix. The algorithm not only avoids the inuence of insufficient prior information in traditional clustering algorithm, but also improves the estimation accuracy of mixing matrix. This paper takes the mixing of four speech signals into two channels as an example. The results of simulations show that the approach in this paper not only improves the accuracy of estimation, but also applies to any mixing matrix.

Keywords: DBSCAN, potential function, speech signal, the UBSS model

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Authors: Mayuva Youngsabanant-Areekijseree, Chanikarn Srinark, S. Sengsai, Mayuree Pumipaiboon

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Our project was aimed at morphology of oocytes, follicle cells and follicular fluid proteins study of Large White pig (at local slaughter house in Nakhon Pathom Province). The porcine oocytes and follicular fluid of healthy small follicles (1-2 mm), medium follicles (3-6 mm in diameters) and large follicles (7-8 mm and 10 mm in diameter) were aspirated and collected from the ovary by sterile technique. Then, the oocytes and the follicle cells were separated from the fluid. The oocytes were round shape and surrounded by zona pellucida with numerous layers of cumulus cells. Based on the number of cumulus cell layers surrounding oocytes, the oocytes were classified into 5 types, which were intact-, multi-, partial-cumulus layer oocyte, completely denuded oocyte and degenerative oocyte. The collected oocytes showed high percentages of intact- and multi- cumulus cell layers in the small follicles (53.48%) medium follicles (56.94%) and large follicles (56.52%) which have high potential to develop into mature oocytes in vitro. Proteins from follicular fluid of 3 size follicles were separated by SDS-PAGE and LC/MS/MS. The molecular weight of follicular fluid proteins from the small follicles were 24, 60-65, 79, 110, 140, 160, and > 220 kDa. Meanwhile, the follicular fluid protein from medium and large follicle contained 52, 65, 79, 90, 110, 120, 160, 190 and > 220 kDa. Almost all proteins played important roles in promoting and regulating growth and development of oocytes and ovulation. This finding was an initial tool for in vitro testing and applied biotechnology research. Acknowledgements: The project was funded by a grant from Silpakorn University Research & Development Institute (SURDI) and Faculty of Science, Silpakorn University, Thailand.

Keywords: follicular fluid protein, LC/MS/MS, porcine oocyte, SDS-PAGE, reproductive biology

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Authors: Waqas Shafqat Chattha, Muhammad Iqbal, Amir Shakeel

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Transcriptional factors are proteins that play a vital role in regulating the transcription of target genes in different biological processes and are being widely studied in different plant species. In the current era of genomics, plant genomes sequencing has directed to the genome-wide identification, analyses and categorization of diverse transcription factor families and hence provide key insights into their structural as well as functional diversity. The DNA-binding with One Finger (DOF) proteins belongs to C2-C2-type zinc finger protein family. DOF proteins are plant-specific transcription factors implicated in diverse functions including seed maturation and germination, phytohormone signalling, light-mediated gene regulation, cotton-fiber elongation and responses of the plant to biotic as well as abiotic stresses. In this context, a genome-wide in-silico analysis of DOF TF family in diploid cotton species i.e. Gossypium raimondii has enabled us to identify 55 non-redundant genes encoding DOF proteins renamed as GrDofs (Gossypium raimondii Dof). Gene distribution studies have shown that all of the GrDof genes are unevenly distributed across 12 out of 13 G. raimondii chromosomes. The gene structure analysis illustrated that 34 out of 55 GrDof genes are intron-less while remaining 21 genes have a single intron. Protein sequence-based phylogenetic analysis of putative 55 GrDOFs has divided these proteins into 5 major groups with various paralogous gene pairs. Molecular evolutionary studies aided with the conserved domain as well as gene structure analysis suggested that segmental duplications were the principal contributors for the expansion of Dof genes in G. raimondii.

Keywords: diploid cotton , G. raimondii, phylogenetic analysis, transcription factor

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Authors: Sultan A. Al Shaqaq

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Corrosion is a serious challenge for a piping system in our Gas and Oil Separation Plant (GOSP) that causes piping failures. Two GOSPs (Plant-A and Plant-B) observed chronic corrosion issue with an on-plot piping system that leads to having more piping replacement during the past years. Since it is almost impossible to avoid corrosion, it is becoming more obvious that managing the corrosion level may be the most economical resolution. Corrosion engineers are thus increasingly involved in approximating the cost of their answers to corrosion prevention, and assessing the useful life of the equipment. This case study covers the background of corrosion encountered in piping internally and externally in these two GOSPs. The collected piping replacement data from year of 2011 to 2014 was covered. These data showed the replicate corrosion levels in an on-plot piping system. Also, it is included the total piping replacement with drain lines system and other service lines in plants (Plant-A and Plant-B) at Saudi Aramco facility.

Keywords: gas and oil separation plant, on-plot piping, drain lines, Saudi Aramco

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Authors: A. D. Susanti, W. B. Sediawan, S. K. Wirawan, Budhijanto, Ritmaleni

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Rice bran oil contains significant amounts of oryzanol, a natural antioxidant that considered has higher antioxidant activity than vitamin E (tocopherol). Oryzanol reviewed has several health properties and interested in pharmacy, nutrition, and cosmetics. For practical usage, isolation and purification would be necessary due to the low concentration of oryzanol in crude rice bran oil (0.9-2.9%). Batch chromatography has proved as a promising process for the oryzanol recovery, but productivity was still low and scale-up processes of industrial interest have not yet been described. In order to improve productivity of batch chromatography, a continuous chromatography design namely Simulated Moving Bed (SMB) concept have been proposed. The SMB concept has interested for continuous commercial scale separation of binary system (oryzanol and rice bran oil), and rice bran oil still obtained as side product. Design of SMB chromatography for oryzanol separation requires quantification of its equilibrium. In this study, equilibrium of oryzanol separation conducted in batch adsorption using silica as the adsorbent and n-hexane/acetone (9:1) as the eluent. Three isotherm models, namely the Henry, Langmuir, and Freundlich equations, have been applied and modified for the experimental data to establish appropriate correlation for each sample. It turned out that the model quantitatively describe the equilibrium experimental data and will directed for design of SMB chromatography.

Keywords: adsorption, equilibrium, oryzanol, rice bran oil, simulated moving bed

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Authors: Rodrigo Antunes, Olga Borisevich, David Demange

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In future nuclear fusion reactors, tritium self-sufficiency will be ensured by tritium (3H) production via reactions between the fusion neutrons and lithium. To favor tritium breeding, a neutron multiplier must also be used. Both tritium breeder and neutron multiplier will be placed in the so-called Breeding Blanket (BB). For the European Helium-Cooled Pebble Bed (HCPB) BB concept, the tritium production and neutron multiplication will be ensured by neutron bombardment of Li4SiO4 and Be pebbles, respectively. The produced tritium is extracted from the pebbles by purging them with large flows of He (~ 104 Nm3h-1), doped with small amounts of H2 (~ 0.1 vol%) to promote tritium extraction via isotopic exchange (producing HT). Due to the presence of oxygen in the pebbles, production of tritiated water is unavoidable. Therefore, the purging gas downstream of the BB will be composed by Q2/Q2O/He (Q = 1H, 2H, 3H), with Q2/Q2O down to ppm levels, which must be further processed for tritium recovery. A two-stage continuous approach, where zeolite membranes (ZMs) are followed by a catalytic membrane reactor (CMR), has been recently proposed to fulfil this task. The tritium recovery from Q2/Q2O/He is ensured by the CMR, that requires a reduction of the gas flow coming from the BB and a pre-concentration of Q2 and Q2O to be efficient. For this reason, and to keep this stage with reasonable dimensions, ZMs are required upfront to reduce as much as possible the He flows and concentrate the Q2/Q2O species. Therefore, experimental activities have been carried out at the Tritium Laboratory Karlsruhe (TLK) to test the separation performances of different zeolite membranes for H2/H2O/He. First experiments have been performed with binary mixtures of H2/He and H2O/He with commercial MFI-ZSM5 and NaA zeolite-type membranes. Only the MFI-ZSM5 demonstrated selectivity towards H2, with a separation factor around 1.5, and H2 permeances around 0.72 µmolm-2s-1Pa-1, rather independent for feed concentrations in the range 0.1 vol%-10 vol% H2/He. The experiments with H2O/He have demonstrated that the separation factor towards H2O is highly dependent on the feed concentration and temperature. For instance, at 0.2 vol% H2O/He the separation factor with NaA is below 2 and around 1000 at 5 vol% H2O/He, at 30°C. Overall, both membranes demonstrated complementary results at equivalent temperatures. In fact, at low feed concentrations ( ≤ 1 vol% H2O/He) MFI-ZSM5 separates better than NaA, whereas the latter has higher separation factors for higher inlet water content ( ≥ 5 vol% H2O/He). In this contribution, the results obtained with both MFI-ZSM5 and NaA membranes for H2/He and H2O/H2 mixtures at different concentrations and temperatures are compared and discussed.

Keywords: nuclear fusion, gas separation, tritium processes, zeolite membranes

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Authors: Ahmed Hammed, Wady Naanaa

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In this paper, we propose a general approach to deal with the problem of a convolutive mixture of images. We use a direct blind source separation method by adding only one non-statistical justified constraint describing the relationships between different mixing matrix at the aim to make its resolution easy. This method can be applied, provided that this constraint is known, to degraded document affected by the overlapping of text-patterns and images. This is due to chemical and physical reactions of the materials (paper, inks,...) occurring during the documents aging, and other unpredictable causes such as humidity, microorganism infestation, human handling, etc. We will demonstrate that this problem corresponds to a convolutive mixture of images. Subsequently, we will show how the validation of our method through numerical examples. We can so obtain clear images from unreadable ones which can be caused by pages superposition, a phenomenon similar to that we find every often in archival documents.

Keywords: blind source separation, convoluted mixture, degraded documents, text-patterns overlapping

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Authors: Salwa Karboune, Amanda Waglay

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Recent studies indicate that health-promoting functional ingredients and nutraceuticals can help support and improve the overall public health, which is timely given the aging of the population and the increasing cost of health care. The development of novel ‘natural’ functional ingredients is increasingly challenging. Biocatalysis offers powerful approaches to achieve this goal. Our recent research has been focusing on the development of innovative biocatalytic approaches towards the isolation of protein isolates from potato by-products and the generation of peptides. Potato is a vegetable whose high-quality proteins are underestimated. In addition to their high proportion in the essential amino acids, potato proteins possess angiotensin-converting enzyme-inhibitory potency, an ability to reduce plasma triglycerides associated with a reduced risk of atherosclerosis, and stimulate the release of the appetite regulating hormone CCK. Potato proteins have long been considered not economically feasible due to the low protein content (27% dry matter) found in tuber (Solanum tuberosum). However, potatoes rank the second largest protein supplying crop grown per hectare following wheat. Potato proteins include patatin (40-45 kDa), protease inhibitors (5-25 kDa), and various high MW proteins. Non-destructive techniques for the extraction of proteins from potato pulp and for the generation of peptides are needed in order to minimize functional losses and enhance quality. A promising approach for isolating the potato proteins was developed, which involves the use of multi-enzymatic systems containing selected glycosyl hydrolase enzymes that synergistically work to open the plant cell wall network. This enzymatic approach is advantageous due to: (1) the use of milder reaction conditions, (2) the high selectivity and specificity of enzymes, (3) the low cost and (4) the ability to market natural ingredients. Another major benefit to this enzymatic approach is the elimination of a costly purification step; indeed, these multi-enzymatic systems have the ability to isolate proteins, while fractionating them due to their specificity and selectivity with minimal proteolytic activities. The isolated proteins were used for the enzymatic generation of active peptides. In addition, they were applied into a reduced gluten cookie formulation as consumers are putting a high demand for easy ready to eat snack foods, with high nutritional quality and limited to no gluten incorporation. The addition of potato protein significantly improved the textural hardness of reduced gluten cookies, more comparable to wheat flour alone. The presentation will focus on our recent ‘proof-of principle’ results illustrating the feasibility and the efficiency of new biocatalytic processes for the production of innovative functional food ingredients, from potato by-products, whose potential health benefits are increasingly being recognized.

Keywords: biocatalytic approaches, functional ingredients, potato proteins, peptides

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Authors: Himanshu J. Bahirat, Apoorva S. Janawlekar

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Plasma actuators are essential for aerodynamic flow separation control due to their lack of mechanical parts, lightweight, and high response frequency, which have numerous applications in hypersonic or supersonic aircraft. The working of these actuators is based on the formation of a low-temperature plasma between a pair of parallel electrodes by the application of a high-voltage AC signal across the electrodes, after which air molecules from the air surrounding the electrodes are ionized and accelerated through the electric field. The high-frequency operation is required in dielectric discharge barriers to ensure plasma stability. To carry out flow separation control in a hypersonic flow, the optimal design and construction of a power supply to generate dielectric barrier discharges is carried out in this paper. In this paper, it is aspired to construct a simplified circuit topology to emulate the dielectric barrier discharge and study its various frequency responses. The power supply can generate high voltage pulses up to 20kV at the repetitive frequency range of 20-50kHz with an input power of 500W. The power supply has been designed to be short circuit proof and can endure variable plasma load conditions. Its general outline is to charge a capacitor through a half-bridge converter and then later discharge it through a step-up transformer at a high frequency in order to generate high voltage pulses. After simulating the circuit, the PCB design and, eventually, lab tests are carried out to study its effectiveness in controlling flow separation.

Keywords: aircraft propulsion, dielectric barrier discharge, flow separation control, power source

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Authors: Arredondo Valdés Roberto, Hernández Castillo Francisco Daniel, Laredo Alcalá Elan Iñaky, Gonzalez Gallegos Esmeralda, Castro Del Angel Epifanio

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The common bean or Phaseolus vulgaris L. is the most important food legume for direct consumption in the world. Fusarium dry rot in the major fungus disease affects Phaseolus vulgaris L, after planting. In another hand, Rhizoctonia can be found on all underground parts of the plant and various times during the growing season. In recent years, the world has conducted studies about the use of natural products as substitutes for herbicides and pesticides, because of possible ecological and economic benefits. Plants respond to fungal invasion by activating defense responses associated with accumulation of several enzymes and inhibitors, which prevent pathogen infection. This study focused on the role of proteins, peroxidase (POD), phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL), in imparting resistance to soft rot pathogens by applied different bacterial consortium, formulated and provided by Biofertilizantes de Méxicanos industries, analyzing the enzyme activity at different times of application (6 h, 12 h and 24 h). The resistance of these treatments was correlated with high POD and PAL enzyme activity as well as increased concentrations of proteins. These findings show that PAL, POD and synthesis of proteins play a role in imparting resistance to Phaseolus vulgaris L. soft rot infection by Fusarium and Rhizoctonia.

Keywords: fusarium, peroxidase, phenylalanine ammonia lyase, rhizoctonia

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Authors: Ehsan Khorshidian, Afshin Farahbakhsh, Sina Aghili

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Enzymes are promising biocatalysts for many organic reactions. They have excellent features like high activity, specificity and selectivity, and can catalyze under mild and environment friendly conditions. Epoxy-activated supports are almost-ideal ones to perform very easy immobilization of proteins and enzymes at both laboratory and industrial scale. The activated epoxy supports (chitosan/alginate, Eupergit C) may be very suitable to achieve the multipoint covalent attachment of proteins and enzymes, therefore, to stabilize their three-dimensional structure. The enzyme is firstly covalently immobilized under conditions pH 7.0 and 10.0. The remaining groups of the support are blocked to stop additional interaction between the enzyme and support by mercaptoethanol or Triton X-100. The results show support allowed obtaining biocatalysts with high immobilized protein amount and hydrolytic activity. The immobilization of lipases on epoxy support may be considered as attractive tool for obtaining highly active biocatalysts to be used in both aqueous and anhydrous aqueous media.

Keywords: immobilization of enzymes, epoxy supports, enzyme multipoint covalent attachment, microbial lipases

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Authors: Tettey Afi Pamela, Sotaro Fujii, Hidetoshi Saito, Kawaii Koichiro

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Introduction: Organisms employ adaptive mechanisms when faced with any stressor or risk of being wiped out. This has made it possible for them to survive in harsh environmental conditions such as increasing temperature, low pH, and anoxia. Some of the mechanisms they utilize include the expression of heat shock proteins, synthesis of cryoprotectants, and anhydrobiosis. Heat shock proteins (HSPs) have been widely studied to determine their involvement in stress tolerance among various organism, of which chironomid species have been no exception. We examined the survival and expression of genes encoding five (5) heat shock proteins (HSP70, HSP67, HSP60, HSP27, and HSP23) from Chironomus sulfurosus larvae reared from 1st instar at 25°C, 30°C, 35°C, and 40°C. Results: The highest survival rate was recorded at 30°C, followed by 25°C, then 35°C. Only a small percentage of C. sulfurosus survived at 40°C (14.5%). With regards to HSPs expression, some HSPs responded to an increase in high temperature. The relative expression levels were lowest at 30°C for HSP70, HSP60, HSP27, and HSP23. At 25°C and 40°C, HSP70, HSP67, HSP60, HSP27, and HSP23 had the highest expression. At 35°C, all had the lowest expression. Discussion: The expression of heat shock proteins varies from one species to another. We designated the genes HSP 70, HSP 67, HSP 60, HSP 27, and HSP 23 genes based on transcriptome analysis of C. sulfurosus. Our study can be termed as a long-heat shock study as C. sulfurosus was reared from the first instar to the fourth instar, and this might have led to a continuous induction of HSPs at 25°C. 40°C had the lowest survival but highest HSPs expression as C. sulfurosus larvae had to utilize HSPs for sustenance. These results and future high-throughput studies at both the transcriptome and proteome level will improve the information needed to predict the future geographic distribution of these species within the context of global warming.

Keywords: chironomid, heat shock proteins, high temperature, heat shock protein expression

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Authors: Mohammad Mashud, S. M. Nahid Hasan

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The aim of the research work is to modify the NACA 4215 airfoil with flap and rotary cylinder at the leading edge of the airfoil and experimentally study the static pressure distribution over the airfoil completed with flap and leading-edge vortex generator. In this research, NACA 4215 wing model has been constructed by generating the profile geometry using the standard equations and design software such as AutoCAD and SolidWorks. To perform the experiment, three wooden models are prepared and tested in subsonic wind tunnel. The experiments were carried out in various angles of attack. Flap angle and momentum injection rate are changed to observe the characteristics of pressure distribution. In this research, a new concept of flow separation control mechanism has been introduced to improve the aerodynamic characteristics of airfoil. Control of flow separation over airfoil which experiences a vortex generator (rotating cylinder) at the leading edge of airfoil is experimentally simulated under the effects of momentum injection. The experimental results show that the flow separation control is possible by the proposed mechanism, and benefits can be achieved by momentum injection technique. The wing performance is significantly improved due to control of flow separation by momentum injection method.

Keywords: airfoil, momentum injection, flap, pressure distribution

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Authors: Choi Woo-Seok, Kim Eun-Sup, Ha Eun-Ryong

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Converter slag is used as a low-value product like a construction fill material and soil stabilizer unlike electric furnace slag and blast furnace slag. This study is fundamental research for utilizing the converter slag as the cement admixture. Magnetic separation was conducted for quality improvement of the converter slag, and it was classified according to into 3 types; SA: pure slag, SB: separated slag, SC: remained slag after separating. In XRF result, SB slag was Fe₂CO₃ ratio was higher, and CaO ratio was lower than SA. SC slag was Fe₂CO₃ ratio was lower, and CaO ratio was higher than SA. In compressive strength test for soil cement using SA, SB, SC as the cement admixture, SC slag was more effective in terms of 28days compressive strength than SA, SB slag. In this result, it is considered that the remained material (SC) after magnetic separation is available as the cement admixture.

Keywords: converter slag, magnetic separation, cement admixture, compressive strength

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Authors: Arash Jafari, Somaye Bahrami, Mohammad Hossein Razi Jalali

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The aim of this study was the isolation and identification of excretory-secretory and somatic antigens from D. dendriticum by SDS-PAGE and evaluation of humeral immune response against these antigens. The sera of infected sheep with different infection degrees were collected. Somatic and ES proteins were isolated with SDS PAGE. Immunogenicity properties of the resulting proteins were determined using western blot analysis. The total extract of somatic antigens analysed by SDS-PAGE revealed 21 proteins. In mild infection, bands of 130 KDa were immune dominant. In moderate infections 48, 80 and 130 KDa and in heavy infections 48, 60, 80, 130 KDa were detected as immune dominant bands. In ES antigens, mild infection 130 KDa, in moderate infection 100, 120 and 130 KDa and in heavy infection 45, 80, 85, 100, 120 and 130 KDa were immune dominant bands. The most immunogenic protein band during different degrees of infection was 130KDa.

Keywords: Dicrocoelium dendriticum excretory-secretory antigens, somatic antigens, western blot

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Authors: Sarmiza Stanca, Wolfgang Fritzsche, Christoph Krafft, Jürgen Popp

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Independent of the cell type a thin layer of a few nanometers thickness surrounds the cell interior as the cellular membrane. The transport of ions and molecules through the membrane is achieved in a very precise way by pores. Understanding the process of opening and closing the pores due to an electrochemical gradient across the membrane requires knowledge of the pore constitutive proteins. Recent reports prove the access to the molecular level of the cellular membrane by atomic force microscopy (AFM). This technique also permits an electrochemical study in the immediate vicinity of the tip. Specific molecules can be electrochemically localized in the natural cellular membrane. Our work aims to recognize the protein domains of the pores using an AFM probe as a miniaturized amperometric sensor, and to follow the protein behavior while changing the applied potential. The intensity of the current produced between the surface and the AFM probe is amplified and detected simultaneously with the surface imaging. The AFM probe plays the role of the working electrode and the substrate, a conductive glass on which the cells are grown, represent the counter electrode. For a better control of the electric potential on the probe, a third electrode Ag/AgCl wire is mounted in the circuit as a reference electrode. The working potential is applied between the electrodes with a programmable source and the current intensity in the circuit is recorded with a multimeter. The applied potential considers the overpotential at the electrode surface and the potential drop due to the current flow through the system. The reported method permits a high resolved electrochemical study of the protein domains on the living cell membrane. The amperometric map identifies areas of different current intensities on the pore depending on the applied potential. The reproducibility of this method is limited by the tip shape, the uncontrollable capacitance, which occurs at the apex and a potential local charge separation.

Keywords: AFM, sensor, membrane, pores, proteins

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Authors: Salah Al-Din I. Badran, Samad Ahmadi, Dylan Menzies, Ismail Shahin

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This paper describes a new efficient blind source separation method; in this method we use a non-uniform filter bank and a new structure with different sub-bands. This method provides a reduced permutation and increased convergence speed comparing to the full-band algorithm. Recently, some structures have been suggested to deal with two problems: reducing permutation and increasing the speed of convergence of the adaptive algorithm for correlated input signals. The permutation problem is avoided with the use of adaptive filters of orders less than the full-band adaptive filter, which operate at a sampling rate lower than the sampling rate of the input signal. The decomposed signals by analysis bank filter are less correlated in each sub-band than the input signal at full-band, and can promote better rates of convergence.

Keywords: Blind source separation, estimates, full-band, mixtures, sub-band

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Authors: Hussein M. Maghrabie, M. Attalla, Hany. A. Mohamed, M. Salem, E. Specht

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An experimental investigation is carried out on counter-flow Ranque–Hilsch vortex tube (RHVT). The present work is carried out to study the effect of nozzle aspect ratio, tube length and the inlet pressure (P_i) on the coefficient of performance and energy separation of a RHVT. Further, the effect of moist air with different relative humidity (RH) 40, 60, 80 % is also achieved. The air relative humidity is adjusted using air humidification/dehumidification unit. The experimental study accomplished for number of nozzle N=6, with inner diameter D=7.5 mm., and length of the vortex tube (L) 75, 97.5, and 112.5 mm. The results show that the relative humidity has a significant effect on coefficient of performance and energy separation of a RHVT.

Keywords: COP, counter-flow Ranque–Hilsch vortex tube, energy separation, humid air

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Authors: Deepak Bhardwaj, Narendra Tuteja

Abstract:

Global climate change is impacting large agrarian societies, especially those in countries located near the equator. Agriculture, and consequently, plant-based food, is the hardest hit in tropical and sub-tropical countries such as India due to an increased incidence of drought as well as an increase in soil salinity. One method that holds promise is AMF-rich biofertilizers which assist in activating proteins which in turn help alleviate abiotic stress in plants. In the present study, we identified two important species of (arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus) AMF belonging to Glomus and Gigaspora from the rhizosphere of the important medicinal plant Justicia adathoda. These two species have been found to be responsible for the abundance of Justicia adathoda in the semi-arid areas of the Jammu valley located in northern India, namely, the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. We isolated the species of Glomus and Gigaspora from the rhizosphere of Justicia adathoda and used them as biofertilizers for the tomato plant. Significant improvements in the growth parameters were observed in the tomato plants inoculated with Glomus sp. and Gigaspora sp. in comparison with the tomato plants that were grown without AMF treatments. Tomato plants grown along with Glomus sp. and Gigaspora sp. have been observed to withstand 200 mM of salinity and 25% PEG stress. AMF also resulted in an increased concentration of proline and antioxidant enzymes in tomato plants. We also examined the expression levels of salinity and drought stress-inducible genes such as pea DNA helicase 45 (PDH 45) and genes of G-protein subunits of the tomato plants inoculated with and without AMF under stress and normal conditions. All the stress-inducible genes showed a significant increase in their gene expression under stress and AMF inoculation, while their levels were found to be normal under AMF inoculation without stress. We propose a model of abiotic stress alleviation in tomato plants with the help of external factors such as AMF and internally with the help of proteins like PDH 45 and G-proteins.

Keywords: AMF, abiotic stress, g-proteins, PDH-45

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Authors: Hui-Ling Huang, Tamara Vasylenko, Phasit Charoenkwan, Shih-Hsiang Chiu, Shinn-Ying Ho

Abstract:

The knowledge of the human transporters is still limited due to technically demanding procedure of crystallization for the structural characterization of transporters by spectroscopic methods. It is desirable to develop bioinformatics tools for effective analysis of available sequences in order to identify human transmembrane transporter proteins (HMTPs). This study proposes a scoring card method (SCM) based method for predicting HMTPs. We estimated a set of propensity scores of dipeptides to be HMTPs using SCM from the training dataset (HTS732) consisting of 366 HMTPs and 366 non-HMTPs. SCM using the estimated propensity scores of 20 amino acids and 400 dipeptides -as HMTPs, has a training accuracy of 87.63% and a test accuracy of 66.46%. The five top-ranked dipeptides include LD, NV, LI, KY, and MN with scores 996, 992, 989, 987, and 985, respectively. Five amino acids with the highest propensity scores are Ile, Phe, Met, Gly, and Leu, that hydrophobic residues are mostly highly-scored. Furthermore, obtained propensity scores were used to analyze physicochemical properties of human transporters.

Keywords: dipeptide composition, physicochemical property, human transmembrane transporter proteins, human transmembrane transporters binding propensity, scoring card method

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Authors: Abdollah Sobhani, Hossein Vaseghi-Dodaran

Abstract:

Proteomics is defined as the study of the component of a cell, tissue and biological fluid. This technique has the potential to identify protein biomarkers of a disease states. In this study which was performed on bovine ovarian follicular cysts (BOFC), eight proteins are over expressed in BOFC that these proteins could be useful biomarkers for BOFC. The difference between serum proteome pattern cows affected by postpartum endometritis with healthy cows revealed that concentrations orosomucoid was decreased in endometritis. The comparison proteome of brucella abortus between laboratory adapted strains and clinical isolates could be useful to better understand this disease and vaccine development. Proteomics experiments identified new proteins and pathways that may be important in future hypothesis-driven studies of glucocorticoid-induced immunosuppression. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of effective parameters on male fertility is essential for obtaining high reproductive efficiency by decreasing cost and time. The investigations on proteome of high fertility spermatozoa indicated that expression of some proteins such as casein kinase 2 (CKII) prime poly peptide and tyrosine kinase in high fertility spermatozoa was higher compared to low fertility spermatozoa. Also, some evidence has indicated that variation in protein types and amounts in seminal fluid regulates fertility indexes in dairy bull. In conclusion, proteomics is a useful technique for discovering drugs, vaccine development, and diagnosis disease by biomarkers and improvement of reproduction efficiency.

Keywords: proteomics, reproduction, biomarker, immunity

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Authors: Marinos Dimitropoulos, George Trakakis, Nikolaus Meyerbröker, Raphael Dalpke, Polina Angelova, Albert Schnieders, Christos Pavlou, Christos Kostaras, Costas Galiotis, Konstantinos Dassios

Abstract:

Intended for purifying water, water separation technologies are widely employed in a variety of contemporary household and industrial applications. Ultrathin Carbon Nanomembranes (CNMs) offer a highly selective, fast-flow, energy-efficient water separation technology intended for demanding water treatment applications as a technological replacement for biological filtration membranes. The membranes are two-dimensional (2D) materials with sub-nm functional pores and a thickness of roughly 1 nm; they may be generated in large quantities on porous supporting substrates and have customizable properties. The purpose of this work was to investigate and analyze the mechanical characteristics of CNMs and their substrates in order to ensure the structural stability of the membrane during operation. Contrary to macro-materials, it is difficult to measure the mechanical properties of membranes that are only a few nanometers thick. The membranes were supported on atomically flat substrates as well as suspended over patterned substrates, and their inherent mechanical properties were tested with atomic force microscopy. Quantitative experiments under nanomechanical loading, nanoindentation, and nano fatigue demonstrated the membranes' potential for usage in water separation applications.

Keywords: carbon nanomembranes, mechanical properties, AFM

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Authors: Patarasuda Chaisupa, R. Clay Wright

Abstract:

The selection of appropriate biomolecular targets is a crucial aspect of biopharmaceutical development. The Auxin-Inducible Degron Degradation (AID) technology has demonstrated remarkable potential in efficiently and rapidly degrading target proteins, thereby enabling the identification and acquisition of drug targets. The AID system also offers a viable method to deplete specific proteins, particularly in cases where the degradation pathway has not been exploited or when the adaptation of proteins, including the cell environment, occurs to compensate for the mutation or gene knockout. In this study, we have engineered an improved AID system tailored to deplete proteins of interest. This AID construct combines the auxin-responsive E3 ubiquitin ligase binding domain, AFB2, and the substrate degron, IAA17, fused to the target genes. Essential genes of fungi with the lowest percent amino acid similarity to human and plant orthologs, according to the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST), were cloned into the AID construct in S. cerevisiae (AID-tagged strains) using a modular yeast cloning toolkit for multipart assembly and direct genetic modification. Each E3 ubiquitin ligase and IAA17 degron was fused to a fluorescence protein, allowing for real-time monitoring of protein levels in response to different auxin doses via cytometry. Our AID system exhibited high sensitivity, with an EC50 value of 0.040 µM (SE = 0.016) for AFB2, enabling the specific promotion of IAA17::target protein degradation. Furthermore, we demonstrate how this improved AID system enhances quantitative functional studies of various proteins in fungi. The advancements made in auxin-inducible protein degradation in this study offer a powerful approach to investigating critical target protein viability in fungi, screening protein targets for drugs, and regulating intracellular protein abundance, thus revolutionizing the study of protein function underlying a diverse range of biological processes.

Keywords: synthetic biology, bioengineering, molecular biology, biotechnology

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Authors: Nishit L. Sanil, Raza M. Khan

Abstract:

Increasing lift effectively at higher angles of attack has always been a daunting challenge in aviation especially on a delta wing. These are used on military jet fighter planes and has some undesirable characteristics, notably flow separation at high angles of attack and high drag at low speeds. In order to solve this problem, a design modification is modeled on a delta wing which would increase the lift so that we can improve maneuverability. To attain an increase in the lift of a 65 degree delta wing at higher angles of attack, a step-wise discontinuity is created at the upper surface of the delta wing. A normal delta wing is validated for comparison which would thereby give us a measure of flow separation and coefficient of lift affected by the modification. The results obtained deliver a significant increase in lift at higher angles of attack thereby delaying stall. Hence the benefits of the modification would aid the potential designs of aircraft’s in the time to come.

Keywords: coefficient of lift, delta wing, flow separation, step-wise discontinuity

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Authors: Boyu Li

Abstract:

Mixed matrix membranes (MMMs), as a separation technology, can improve CO₂ recycling efficiency and reduce the environmental impacts associated with huge emissions. Nevertheless, many challenges must be overcome to design excellent selectivity and permeability performance MMMs. Herein, this work demonstrates the design of nano-scale GNPs (Cu-BDC@PEG) with strong compatibility and high free friction volume (FFV) is an effective way to construct non-interfacial voids MMMs with a desirable combination of selectivity and permeability. Notably, the FFV boosted thanks to the chain length and shape of the GNPs. With this, the permeability and selectivity of Cu-BDC@PEG/PVDF MMMs had also been significantly improved. As such, compatible Cu-BDC@PEG proves very efficient for resolving challenges of MMMs with poor compatibility on the basis of the interfacial defect. Poly (Ethylene Glycol) (PEG) with oxygen groups can be finely coordinated with Cu-MOFs to disperse Cu-BDC@PEG homogenously and form hydrogen bonds with matrix to achieve continuous phase. The resultant MMMs exhibited a simultaneous enhancement of gas permeability (853.1 Barrer) and ideal CO₂/N selectivity (41.7), which has surpassed Robenson's upper bound. Moreover, Cu-BDC@PEG/PVDF has a high-temperature resistance and a long time sustainably. This attractive separation performance of Cu-BDC@PEG/PVDF offered an exciting platform for the development of composite membranes for sustainable CO₂ separations.

Keywords: metal organic framework, CO₂ separation, mixed matrix membrane, polymer

Procedia PDF Downloads 73