L. (St. John’s wort) is one of the most popular medicinal plants in the world. Due to its documented antimicrobial and antioxidant properties, it is used in the treatment of bacterial and viral infections as well as inflammations. It is also used to treat gastrointestinal diseases and mild to moderate depression. In recent years, there has been an increase in the popularity of herbal medicine. Many people collect their own herbs and dry them at home. A common choice for quick drying of fruits, vegetables and herbs at home are food dehydrator machines. There are not many publications in the scientific literature examining the quality of dried herbal material obtained in such dryers. We characterized St. John’s wort harvested in southern Poland and investigated the effect of specific drying methods on the volatile component profile. The herbal raw material was dried using three methods: indoors at room temperature, in an incubator at 37 °C and in a food dehydrator machine. Volatile compo... [more]

Damage to abdominal wall integrity occurs in accidents, infection and herniation. Repairing the hernia remains to be one of the most recurrent common surgical techniques. Supercritical carbon dioxide (SCCO2) was used to decellularize porcine skin to manufacture acellular dermal matrix (ADM) for the reparation of full-thickness abdominal wall defects and hernia. The ADM produced by SCCO2 is chemically equivalent and biocompatible with human skin. The ADM was characterized by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining, 4,6-Diamidino-2-phenylindole, dihydrochloride (DAPI) staining, residual deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) contents and alpha-galactosidase (α-gal staining), to ensure the complete decellularization of ADM. The ADM mechanical strength was tested following the repair of full-thickness abdominal wall defects (4 × 4 cm) created on the left and right sides in the anterior abdominal wall of New Zealand White rabbits. The ADM produced by SCCO2 technology revealed complete decellularization,... [more]

Wax deposition is the main flow assurance problem that affects the oil and gas industry at various points of oil transport, hence a solution is being sought. The aim of this paper is to establish a solution using Jatropha curcas seed oil (JSO) from Malaysia and its sustainability as a wax inhibitor component. Extraction of JSO was carried out using a Soxhlet extractor and n-Hexane solvent. Characterization of JSO by gas chromatography−mass spectrometry (GC−MS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was performed to identify the components of JSO and their functional groups. GC−MS analysis showed that oleic acid was the major component of JSO with 44.91%. FTIR analysis showed the presence of ester fatty acid groups at a peak of 1746.48 cm−1. The analysis revealed that the high content of oleic acid in JSO has great potential as a wax inhibitor to mitigate paraffin wax deposition and improve the flowability of crude oil. This research was extended by the discovery of the proc... [more]

The increasing public attention on unceasing food safety incidents prompts the requirements of analytical techniques with high sensitivity, reliability, and reproducibility to timely prevent food safety incidents occurring. Food analysis is critically important for the health of both animals and human beings. Due to their unique physical and chemical properties, nanomaterials provide more opportunities for food quality and safety control. To date, nanomaterials have been widely used in the construction of sensors and biosensors to achieve more accurate, fast, and selective food safety detection. Here, various nanomaterial-based sensors for food analysis are outlined, including optical and electrochemical sensors. The discussion mainly involves the basic sensing principles, current strategies, and novel designs. Additionally, given the trend towards portable devices, various smartphone sensor-based point-of-care (POC) devices for home care testing are discussed.

A series of studies were conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of low-temperature bonding by the forming and heating an Al-8wt%Si alloy thick film on a B4C surface by cold spraying. The results show that: (1) The cracks near the joining interface are closed by the Al alloy by the process studied in this study, and a joining strength of about 220 and 240 MPa is achieved by low temperature joining of 580 °C and 600 °C, respectively.; (2) The amount of weak intermetallic compounds at the joining interface is reduced; (3) It is assumed that the reduction in the amount of Al-B-C compounds is due to the formation of the β phase during the solidification process of the Al-Si alloy, which hinders the growth of the compounds.; (4) On the primary joint surface, a continuous void group is formed in the vicinity of the β phase that surrounds the α phase, causing a decrease in the joining strength.

Low speed, low capacity, and poor scalability make size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) unattractive for use in the preparative separation of proteins. We discuss a novel z2 cuboid SEC device that addresses these challenges. A z2 cuboid SEC device (~24 mL volume) was systematically compared with a conventional SEC column having the same volume and packed with the same resin. The primary objective of this study was to use the same volume of SEC medium in a much more efficient way by using the novel device. At any given flow rate, the pressure drop across the z2 cuboid SEC device was lower by a factor of 6 to 8 due to its shorter bed height and greater cross-sectional area. Under overloaded conditions, the peaks obtained during protein separation with the conventional column were poorly resolved and showed significant fronting, while those obtained with the z2 cuboid SEC device were much better resolved and showed no fronting. At any given flow rate, better resolution was obtained with th... [more]

Two Mn0.15Ce0.85O2−δ mixed oxides were synthesized by a co-precipitation method using Mn(NO3)2 and KMnO4 as the manganese precursors, respectively. Structural analyses by X-ray powder diffraction and Raman spectroscopy reveal the formation of MnO-CeO2 solid solutions. The Mn0.15Ce0.85O2−δ catalyst prepared from the high-valent manganese precursor exhibits higher activity for the catalytic oxidation of NO. The advantage of KMnO4 is related to the improved redox property of the catalyst as supported by H2 temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) and O2 temperature-programmed desorption (TPD). The Mn-Ce interactions create more Mn4+, Ce3+ and oxygen vacancies on the KMnO4-synthesized mixed oxides based on the Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS).

Fungal plant pathogens cause huge losses in agricultural production by decreasing crop yield and quality. To reduce crop loss from fungal damage, various synthetic fungicides are applied indiscriminately in agricultural practice. The majority of synthetic fungicides are non-biodegradable, and several critical human health risks are associated with them. Green synthesis nanotechnology offers an effectual, cost-effective, ecofriendly, and innocuous method for the synthesis of green nanofungicides, an excellent replacement for synthetic chemical fungicides. Origanum majorana is an aromatic herb with immense pharmacological and medicinal properties. In this context, the present study used the leaves of O. majorana to synthesize silver nanoparticles. The biosynthesized particles showed an absorption peak at 441 nm with ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry (UV-Vis). The spectra obtained from Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) of O. majorana extract and AgNPs showed a myriad of... [more]

As a new highly damage-tolerant structural material, the TC21 titanium alloy has been widely used in aerospace applications. Inertial friction welding (IFW) is a form of pressure welding technology with less welding parameters and high welding joint performance, which is especially suitable for the connection of rotors of aero-compressors and engines. In this paper, inertia friction welding of TC21 titanium alloys was successfully carried out, and the microhardness, tensile properties and low cycle fatigue (LCF) behaviors of IFW joints were studied. Based on the mechanical parametric results of the tensile test, the true stress−strain curves of the IFW joint of TC21 titanium alloys are obtained by further calculation. Based on the LCF test results under different strain amplitudes, life prediction of IFW joints was investigated. The results of the LCF test show that there is no obvious cyclic hardening and cyclic softening of the IFW joints. Moreover, the fracture morphology of LCF sam... [more]

In this study, the effect of hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of waste PVC was investigated in the presence of acidic hydrochar. The hydrochar was prepared by hydrothermal carbonization of pineapple waste at 250 °C and at 1 h in the presence of citric acid. Hydrochar was acidic, stable, and porous and contained acidic functional groups. Hydrochar was co-fed with PVC during HTL to enhance HTL conversion and quality of the plastic crude oil. HTL experiments were performed at 300−350 °C, 0.25−4 h of reaction times, and 0−20 wt% hydrochar-to-PVC ratio. The plastic crude oil was separated from the solid residue to evaluate HTL conversion and to analyze elemental compositions, boiling point distribution, alteration of chemical bonds, and chemical compositions. The results showed that acidic hydrochar enhances HTL conversion with a maximum value of 28.75 at 5 wt% hydrochar content at 350 °C and 0.5 h. Furthermore, plastic crude oils contained no chloride but contained significantly high carbon... [more]

The search for novel highly effective materials with target properties for different electrochemical purposes is active for now. Ceramic materials with high levels of ionic conductivity can be applied as electrolytic materials in solid oxide fuel cells and in electrolyzers. Layered perovskites are a novel class of ionic conductors demonstrating almost-pure proton transportation at mid-temperatures. Gadolinium-doped ceramic materials based on layered perovskite BaLa2In2O7 were obtained and investigated for the first time in this study. The effect of the dopant concentrations on the hydration processes and on ionic conductivity was revealed. It was shown that compositions 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.15 of BaLa2−xGdxIn2O7 exhibited proton conductivity when under wet air and at mid-temperatures (lower than ~450 °C). Gadolinium doping led to an increase in the conductivity values up to an order of magnitude of ~0.5. The protonic conductivity of the most conductive composition BaLa1.85Gd0.15In2O7 was 2.7∙10−6... [more]

The outlet liquid material concentration is a key production indicator to evaluate the evaporation quality and an important basis to adjust the evaporation operation parameters. However, the online concentration analyzer has strict installation conditions and high prices, and it is difficult to obtain the liquid material concentration in time. Usually, the field works perform imprecise operations according to the time delay information. In addition, the process data contain errors, which affects the accuracy and timeliness of process optimization and control. Therefore, a hybrid prediction model of concentration based on data reconciliation is presented in this paper. First, to obtain the high-quality process data, the data reconciliation method is applied for preprocessing. Moreover, the process mechanistic model is constructed by utilizing the process knowledge and the balance principle. Taking into account the volatility and nonlinearity characteristics, a data-driven model based on... [more]

Bisphenol A, bisphenol S, and fluconazole are environmental contaminants widely found in surface waters because of their extensive usage and low biodegradability. Therefore, other methods are often considered for the removal of these compounds. The present study aims at their photodegradation with the use of UV light and three different catalysts, ZnO, TiO2, and Ag-TiO2. The results obtained show that photocatalytic removal of these compounds is also problematic and the use of catalysts, such as ZnO and TiO2, at increasing concentrations mostly leads to lower degradation of the tested compounds. The modification of TiO2 with silver increases the degradation of both bisphenols up to 100%, which was achieved in 60 min by bisphenol A and in as little as 10 min by bisphenol S. Nevertheless, the degradation of fluconazole remained at the same level, not exceeding 70% in 60 min, i.e., still much lower than expected. In addition, the degradation products of bisphenols show the hydroxylation a... [more]

In order to utilize the benefits of blackthorn flower polyphenols and provide their stabilization during processing and storage, and to facilitate their application in functional food products, this study aimed to evaluate the encapsulation parameters during the spray-drying process of blackthorn flower extract. The effect of the type of wall material (maltodextrin (MD) and its mixtures with gum arabic (GA) and inulin (IN)), its ratio to extract dry matter (0.5, 1, and 2) and drying temperature (120, 150, and 180 °C) on the concentration of different polyphenolic groups was studied. While the lowest applied amount of wall material at the lowest drying temperature enabled efficient encapsulation of all polyphenolic groups, the type of wall material applied caused significant differences in retention. The highest concentrations of both phenolic acids and flavonoids were achieved with the addition of 25% of GA in MD. Unlike the addition of GA, mixtures of MD with IN did not show a positiv... [more]

Craft breweries tend to use special raw materials and also special ingredients (spices, herbs, fruits) to typify beers, but the metabolic activities of yeasts play a primary role in defining the sensory characteristics of this beverage. Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces pastorianus are yeast species usually used for ale and lager beer production. The selection and use of new yeast starters with peculiar technological and enzymatic characteristics could represent the key point for the production of beers with good and distinctive organoleptic properties. In this study, the fermentative performance of S. cerevisiae 41CM yeast isolated from the vineyard environment for ale and lager craft beer production on a laboratory scale was evaluated. The commercial yeast S. cerevisiae Fermentis S-04 and S. pastorianus Weihenstephan 34/70 were used as reference strains. S. cerevisiae 41CM showed fermentative kinetics similar to commercial starters, both in lager (12 °C) and ale (20 °C) brew... [more]

Due to fast analysis speed, analyzing composition content of cement raw meal utilizing near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, combined with partial least squares regression (PLS), is a reliable alternative method for the cement industry to obtain qualified cement products. However, it has hardly been studied. The raw materials employed in different cement plants differ, and the spectral absorption intensity in the NIR range of the raw meal component is weaker than organic substances, although there are obvious absorption peaks, which place high demands on the generality of modeling and accuracy of the analytical model. An effective modeling procedure is proposed, which optimizes the quantitative analytical model from several modeling stages, and two groups of samples with different raw material types and origins are collected to validate it. For the samples in the prediction set from Qufu, the root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) of CaO, SiO2, Al2O3, and Fe2O3 were 0.1910, 0.2307, 0... [more]

As the main component of radioactive wastewater, the cesium ion has seriously endangered the environment and human health. Prussian blue nanoparticles (PB NPs) are used as adsorbents for the purification of cesium-containing wastewater because of their ability to selectively adsorb cesium ions. In this work, novel magnetic Prussian blue nanospheres (MPBNs) were developed from polylactic acid nanospheres as a carrier, loaded with Fe3O4 nanoparticles (Fe3O4 NPs) inside and PB NPs outside for the removal of cesium ions with the help of magnetic separation. Meanwhile, the effects on the adsorption efficiency of MPBNs, such as pH, time, temperature and initial concentration of cesium ion solution, were studied. The adsorption isotherms, kinetic models and adsorption thermodynamics were investigated to research the absorption mechanism. The results showed that MPBNs were spherical with a rough surface, and their particle size, iron content and saturation magnetization were 268.2 ± 1.4 nm, 40... [more]

Power ultrasound application has been proven to intensify the extraction of biocompounds from plant materials. In this work, the ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) of polyphenols from olive pomace (OP) has been studied at three different scales: laboratory (batch, 400 W, 0 barg), medium (continuous, 1000 W, 1.0 barg), and pilot (continuous, 2000 W, 1.0 barg) taking into consideration the influence of technological parameters: extraction time (s), solvent to solid ratio (mL/g), mixture pH, and acoustic parameters: amplitude (µm), intensity (W/cm2), and applied energy (Wh). A central composite design was used to optimize the UAE at laboratory scale (0.2 kg). The optimal conditions were: time: 490 s; ratio: 2.1 mL H2O/g OP; pH: 5.6 at an acoustic amplitude of 46 µm for a maximum extraction yield of 3.6 g GAE/L of extract. At medium scale (2.2 kg) the UAE was carried out using amplitudes from 41 to 57 µm. The effect of the pressure (1.0 barg) on the UAE was positive, in terms of higher e... [more]

Over the past several decades, industrialised and developing nations have attempted to enhance sustainability. Demands for energy and the acceleration in environmental deterioration are the two primary obstacles to progress. The daily generation of municipal solid waste has been a significant factor in the deterioration of the ecology. To address this issue, a considerable amount of municipal solid waste may be used to synthesise SiC nanomaterials from organic and inorganic fractions and use them as carbon and silica sources. Nanomaterials have progressively received widespread prominence as the development of particulate materials accelerates at an incredible rate. One such material is silicon carbide (SiC), which has garnered considerable interest due to its remarkable performance and wide variety of applications. This review article discusses the SiC polytypes, including cubic, hexagonal, and rhombohedral SiC. The characteristics of silicon carbide, such as its biomimetic, surface,... [more]

The seismic amplitude along a layer in a section can reveal lateral reservoir changes and is one of the important means of reservoir prediction, but it is often difficult to establish the quantitative relationship between the seismic amplitude and sandstone thickness in wells in blocks with denser development. The use of a lower-amplitude slice for precisely quantitatively predicting the sandstone thickness, based on the goal of obtaining data on layers in the development zone with a dense well pattern, is accurate and has a valuable advantage. The method of formation slice optimization based on an objective function is studied to improve the ability of reservoir characterization by seismic attributes. This method has been applied to the reservoir prediction of the G I2 sedimentary unit in the ZQX block of the SRT oilfield and has achieved good results.

Green synthesis of metal nanoparticles in nanosized form has acquired great interest in the area of nanomedicine as an environmentally friendly and cost-effective alternative compared to other chemical and physical methods. This study deals with the eco-friendly green synthesis of titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs) utilizing Juniperus phoenicea leaf extract and their characterization. The biosynthesis of TiO2 NPs was completed in 3 h and confirmed by UV-Vis spectroscopy, a strong band at 205.4 nm distinctly revealed the formation of NPs. Transmissions electron microscopy (TEM) analysis showed the synthesized TiO2 NPs are spherical in shape, with a diameter in a range of 10−30 nm. The XRD major peak at 27.1° congruent with the (110) lattice plane of tetragonal rutile TiO2 phase. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis revealed synthesized TiO2 NPs average particle size (hydrodynamic diameter) of (74.8 ± 0.649) nm. Fourier transmission infrared (FTIR) revealed the bioactive compon... [more]

Homogeneous catalysis is relevant for biodiesel fuel synthesis; however, it has the disadvantage of difficult separation of the catalyst. In the present work, heterogeneous catalysis was applied for rapeseed oil transesterification with methanol, while snail shells were used as a catalyst. CaO content in the catalyst was investigated. Transesterification reactions were carried out in a laboratory reactor, ester yield was analyzed using gas chromatography. Response surface methodology was used for process optimization. It was found that the optimum transesterification conditions when the reaction temperature is 64 °C are the following: a catalyst amount of 6.06 wt%, a methanol-to-oil molar ratio of 7.51:1, and a reaction lasting 8 h. An ester yield of 98.15 wt% was obtained under these conditions.

sp. D-23 was obtained by ultraviolet-diethyl sulfate (UV-DES) compound mutagenesis from Aspergillus sp. C18 that the α-galactosidase was purified from. According to sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and non-denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (Native-PAGE), the purified enzyme demonstrated apparent homogeneity. The monomeric α-galactosidase’s native molecular weight was 125 kDa. The optimal temperature of α-galactosidase was 65 °C, and 75% of the initial enzyme activity could be maintained between 45 and 55 °C. Its optimal pH was 5.0 with good pH stability. After incubating for 2 h at pH 3.0−8.0, it could retain more than 80% of its original activity. Different concentrations of metal ions had different effects on the α-galactosidase activity. High concentrations of Cu2+ could strongly inhibit enzyme activity and low concentrations of Fe2+ could promote enzyme activity. Additionally, as shown by thin layer chromatography and high-performance... [more]

Surface location error (SLE) caused by forced vibration is a key factor to determine the quality of the finished part. When machining thin-walled structures with sculptured surfaces, the complicated milling process is significantly influenced by the vibration due to the flexibility of the part. The dynamics of the part are dominant and vary with the material removal during machining. This paper presents a prediction method of SLE considering the varying dynamics of thin-walled parts in five-axis flank milling. The in-process part is decomposed into unmachined and machined portions, which are both modelled based on the thin-plate theory. The dynamics models of the two portions are coupled using the substructure method. Coordinate transformation based on the screw theory and the general cutting dynamics model for five-axis flank milling is employed to transform the cutting force vectors and frequency response function (FRF) to the same coordinate system for the prediction of SLE. The pro... [more]

The metallurgical industry is seeking raw material substitutes more and more intensively in order to replace materials traditionally used in pig iron production. Research has been conducted on the use of char obtained from waste car tires via a pyrolysis process in an iron ore sintering process. The char obtained from car tires could be a potential substitute for some of the coke breeze used in the iron ore sintering process. However, the Zn and S content of the char is a major technological issue. This paper presents the results of research conducted to assess the possibility of substituting coke breeze with a commercial char from waste tires. The experiments were carried out in a laboratory stand capable of sintering 200 kg of sintering blend. The results obtained show that it is possible to replace 10 %m/m of coke breeze with waste tire char without any technological danger for sintering lines. The application of waste tire char in metallurgical processes is an example of actions th... [more]