Comparative study by microwave pyrolysis and conventional pyrolysis of pharmaceutical sludge: Resourceful disposal and antibiotic adsorption.

Compared with conventional pyrolysis, microwave pyrolysis has superior heat transfer performance and promotes the decomposition of organic matter. The paper focuses on the harmless treatment and resource utilization of pharmaceutical sludge (PS) by microwave heating and conventional heating methods. The experimental results showed that the conventional pyrolysis gas is dominated by CO2, CO and H2. For microwave pyrolysis gas, the "microwave effect" promoted secondary cracking of volatile fractions and increases the content of CH4, CxHy, H2 and CO through condensation, aromatization, and dehydrogenation. Conventional pyrolysis oils contained the highest percentage of oxygenated compounds. However, high-temperature microwave radiation accelerated the cleavage of polar oxygenated molecular bonds and long-chain hydrocarbons, thereby increasing the aromatics content of pyrolysis oils. The solid residues obtained from microwave pyrolysis is highly graphitized and porous, with a surface area of 146.2 m2/g. Furthermore, the solid residue was rich in pyridine-N and pyrrole-N that could be utilized for adsorption and catalysis. The MA-600 removes up to 99% of tetracycline (TC) in 6 h. It was also found that the adsorption process of TC by the two pyrolysis residues was consistent with the proposed secondary and Freundlich models.

A novel fire smoke removal technology using electric agglomeration: The concept, experimental verification and mechanisms.

Electric agglomeration technology is effective in removing particulate matter from the environment and has been widely used in the field of dust removal. For the first time, this technology is applied to the field of fire smoke removal at lab scale. By varying applied electric potential and initial concentration of smoke, the removal characteristics and mechanisms during the electric agglomeration process are systematically studied. The results show that when the applied electric potential is higher than 4 kV, the smoke transmittance increases from 4% to 90% in just 10 s, and the threshold for people safe escape can be reached in only 5 s. Three main mechanisms involved in the process of smoke removal using electric agglomeration are proposed. In addition to the conventional Coulomb agglomeration of charged particles, the turbulence-enhanced agglomeration induced by ionic wind and dipole chainization at the grounded plate are also observed. This study demonstrates the feasibility and potential of electric agglomeration technology to remove fire smoke.

Enhanced the photoelectrochemical performance of Bi2XO6 (X = W, Mo) for detecting hexavalent chromium by modification of CuS.

In this work, Bi2XO6 (X = W, Mo) are synthesized at different temperatures. The results of tests find the optimal temperatures of Bi2WO6 and Bi2MoO6 are 180 and 160°C (BW-180, BM-160). Then, BW-180 and BM-160 are further compounded with different contents of CuS. The results of photoelectrochemical (PEC) tests show that CuS can improve the PEC performance of semiconductor materials, and it has better performance when CuS mass fraction is 5%. These maybe the photoelectron potentials generated by CuS/Bi2XO6 (X = Mo, W) heterojunction reduce the combination of photogenerated electrons and holes. When the PEC sensor based on 5%-CuS/BW-180 detects Cr(VI), it has a linear range of 1-80 µmol/L with detection limit of 0.95 µmol/L, while the PEC sensor based on 5%-CuS/BM-160 detects Cr(VI) has a linear range of 0.5-230 µmol/L and a detection limit of 0.12 µmol/L. Thus, 5%-CuS/Bi2XO6 has potential application in hexavalent chromium detection.

Research on the coagulation law of dielectric nanoparticles in Stokes regime via Taylor expansion moment method.

For the collision and coagulation of dielectric nanoparticles randomly oriented and moving in an electric field, the collision frequency function of the particles in Stokes regime is derived. The numerical solution obtained by the Taylor expansion moment method in the Stokes regime coagulation problem is very consistent with the numerical solution obtained by the previous study of the TEMOM model. In this paper, the first-order ordinary differential equations are constructed to obtain closed-form expressions. The fourth-order Runge-Kutta algorithm is used to derive the particle concentration of the dielectric nanoparticles under different electric field strengths and different polarities. The law of variation of the polydispersity of the system during coagulation and rupture. These expressions are used in simple overall balance expressions to illustrate the importance of their range of physical parameter values encountered in real systems. The results show that this method can be used to solve the accuracy of the general kinetic equation in the process of particles coagulation under electric field, and the calculation cost is low.

Experimental study on eliminating fire smokes using acoustic agglomeration technology.

Acoustic agglomeration is a process in which an intense sound field is applied to promote relative motion and rapid agglomeration among aerosol particles. This technology is able to improve significantly and rapidly the visibility of the smoke in a fire situation, and therefore assists the quick evacuation of evacuees. In this paper, the elimination effect of polystyrene smoke using acoustic agglomeration technology is experimentally investigated. The results show that the smoke transmittance will be increased to 0.75 from the initial value of 0.24 in only 0.5 min, in a 1.5 kHz acoustic field at a sound pressure level of 141 dB. The agglomeration rate is sensitive to acoustic frequency and there is an optimal operation frequency, which indicates that the predominant mechanism is orthokinetic interaction. Under the conditions of our experiments, the optimal frequency for eliminating soot particles is determined to be 1.5 kHz. As an energy consuming process, the agglomeration efficiency increases proportionally with the acoustic power until the corresponding nonlinear acoustic effects become significant. Moreover, it is found that the agglomeration rate of thicker smoke is much higher than thin ones at the early stage of the process, but the discrepancy tends to vanish at the later stage.

Synthesis of MoO3/V2O5/C Composite as Novel Anode for Li-Ion Battery Application.

The MoO3/V2O5/C, MoO3/C and V2O5/C are synthesized by electrospinning combined with heat treatment. These samples are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Raman spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis (TG) techniques. The results show that sample MoO3/V2O5/C is a composite composed from MoO3, V2O5 and carbon. It takes on morphology of the nanofibers with the diameter of 200~500 nm. The TG analysis result showed that the carbon content in the composite is about 40.63%. Electrochemical properties for these samples are studied. When current density is 0.2 A g-1, the MoO3/V2O5/C could retain the specific capacity of 737.6 mAh g-1 after 200 cycles and its coulomb efficiency is 92.99%, which proves that MoO3/V2O5/C has better electrochemical performance than that of MoO3/C and V2O5/C. The EIS and linear Warburg coefficient analysis results show that the MoO3/V2O5/C has larger Li+ diffusion coefficient and superior conductivity than those of MoO3/C or V2O5/C. So MoO3/V2O5/C is a promising anode material for lithium ion battery application.

Synthesis of CuO/g-C3N4 composites, and their application to voltammetric sensing of glucose and dopamine.

The preparation of 3 kinds of carbonaceous nanocomposites by hydrothermal treatment and subsequent calcination described. The first comprises a nanomaterial of type CuO/g-C3N4, with g-C3N4 in mass fractions of 2, 5 and 7 wt%, respectively. The second comprises CuO/porous carbon (5 wt%), and the third comprises CuO/carbon spheres (5 wt%). All of them were employed to modify a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) to obtain electrochemical sensors for glucose and dopamine. The GCE modified with CuO/g-C3N4 (5 wt%) displays the highest electrocatalytic activity towards glucose and dopamine. Figures of merit for sensing glucose (in 0.1 M NaOH solution) include a wide linear range (0.5 µM to 8.5 mM), a detection limit of 0.150 µM, and a sensitivity of 0.274 µA·µM-1·cm-2 (at a working potential of 0.60 V vs. Ag/AgCl). The respective data for dopamine (in pH 7.0 solution) are linear ranges from 0.2-16.0 µM and 16.0-78.7 µM, a lower detection limit of 60 nM, and an electrochemical sensitivity of 0.834 and 0.331 µA·µM-1·cm-2 (at a working potential of 0.22 V vs. Ag/AgCl). The good performance of the modified GCE is attributed to the synergetic interactions between CuO and the appropriate fraction of g-C3N4, and the improvement of conductivity. Graphical abstract Schematic presentation of a electrochemical sensor based on CuO/g-C3N4 for the determination of glucose and dopamine.

Low temperature degradation of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans over a VOx-CeOx/TiO2 catalyst with addition of ozone.

In order to find a catalyst to destroy polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) with high efficiency, a homemade VOx-CeOx/TiO2 catalyst was prepared, and then tested in the flue gas of a waste incinerator at temperatures of 180-240 °C. The results shows the best removal efficiency (93.4%) was attained already at 200 °C, yet degradation efficiency further raised with temperature, until 240 °C. Ozone (500 ppm) was also introduced into the system to increase the activity of catalyst, and removal efficiency of PCDD/Fs increased further to 97.4% and 98.8% at 200 and 240 °C, respectively. In addition, a lab-scale reaction system was installed to study the degradation mechanism of PCDD/Fs. Octa-chlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin (OCDD) was selected as the study object due to the most stable structure and maximum chlorine atom number. The intermediate products resulting from the conversion of OCDD were monitored using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and a possible reaction pathway was proposed. Dechlorination persists until the complete conversion of OCDD. Oxidation decomposes OCDD-molecules mainly into organic substances having one, two or more benzene rings, yet also alkanes, cycloalkanes and heterocompounds of sulphur, nitrogen, and halogens appear. However, more work is still needed to fit those trace products into mechanistic schemes.

Human cytomegalovirus infection and coronary heart disease: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection is closely associated with coronary heart disease. In 1987, Adam et al. were the first to report an association between HCMV infection and atherosclerosis (AS), and later, many serum epidemiology and molecular biology studies showed that HCMV-infected endothelial cells play an important role in the development of AS. As patients with HCMV are generally susceptible to coronary heart disease, and with the increasing elderly population, a review of recent studies focusing on the relationships of HCMV infection and coronary heart disease is timely and necessary. SHORT CONCLUSION: The role of HCMV infection in the development of AS needs further study, since many remaining issues need to be explored and resolved. For example, whether HCMV promotes the development of coronary AS, and what the independent factors that lead to coronary artery AS by viral infection are. A comprehensive understanding of HCMV infection is needed in order to develop better strategies for preventing AS.

Frequency comparative study of coal-fired fly ash acoustic agglomeration.

Particulate pollution is main kind of atmospheric pollution. The fine particles are seriously harmful to human health and environment. Acoustic agglomeration is considered as a promising pretreatment technology for fine particle agglomeration. The mechanisms of acoustic agglomeration are very complex and the agglomeration efficiency is affected by many factors. The most important and controversial factor is frequency. Comparative studies between high-frequency and low-frequency sound source to agglomerate coal-fired fly ash were carried out to investigate the influence of frequency on agglomeration efficiency. Acoustic agglomeration theoretical analysis, experimental particle size distributions (PSDs) and orthogonal design were examined. The results showed that the 20 kHz high-frequency sound source was not suitable to agglomerate coal-fired fly ash. Only within the size ranging from 0.2 to 0.25 microm the particles agglomerated to adhere together, and the agglomerated particles were smaller than 2.5 microm. The application of low-frequency (1000-1800 Hz) sound source was proved as an advisable pretreatment with the highest agglomeration efficiency of 75.3%, and all the number concentrations within the measuring range decreased. Orthogonal design L16 (4)3 was introduced to determine the optimum frequency and optimize acoustic agglomeration condition. According to the results of orthogonal analysis, frequency was the dominant factor of coal-fired fly ash acoustic agglomeration and the optimum frequency was 1400 Hz.

Involvement of CGRP and CGRPl receptor in nociception in the basolateral nucleus of amygdala of rats.

The present study was performed to investigate the role of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) and its receptor in nociception in the basolateral nucleus of amygdala (BLA) of rats. Hindpaw withdrawal latencies (HWLs) to noxious thermal and mechanical stimulations were measured by hot plate and Randall Selitto tests. The HWL to both thermal and mechanical stimulations increased significantly after intra-BLA administration of 1.0 or 2.0 nmol CGRP, but not 0.5 nmol, indicating that CGRP plays an anti-nociceptive role in BLA of rats. The anti-nociceptive effect of 1.0 nmol CGRP was blocked significantly by administration of 1.0 or 2.0 nmol CGRP8-37, a selective antagonist of CGRP1 receptor, which suggests that the anti-nociceptive effect of CGRP is mediated by the CGRP1 receptor. Taken together, the results indicate that both CGRP and CGRP1 receptor play important roles in nociceptive modulation in the BLA of rats.

Expression of calcitonin gene-related peptide type 1 receptor mRNA and their activity-modifying proteins in the rat nucleus accumbens.

The calcitonin receptor-like receptor (CRLR) and the orphan receptor RDC-1 have been proposed to be calcitonin gene-related peptide type 1 (CGRP1) receptors, and receptor activity-modifying proteins (RAMPs) determine the ligand specificity of CRLR. Coexpression of RAMP1 and CRLR resulted in functional CGRP1 receptors; the complex of RAMP2 or RAMP3 and CRLR created functional adrenomedullin receptor. Although high levels of CGRP binding sites in the nucleus accumbens have been reported, little is known about the expression of these novel CGRP receptors. In the present study, we used real-time quantitative RT-PCR to detect and quantitate the relative expression of CGRP, CRLR, RAMP1-3 and RDC-1 in the nucleus accumbens of intact rats and rats with inflammation. Our results demonstrate that CGRP, CRLR, RAMP1 and RAMP2 exist in the nucleus accumbens of intact rats, and that they were significantly upregulated in rats with inflammation. In contrast, no expression was detected for RDC-1 and RAMP3. These findings indicated a functional role for CGRP and its receptors in inflammation and pain modulation.