Maternal sex chromosome mosaicism diagnosed by amniocentesis and percutaneous umbilical cord sampling

We present a remarkable chain of events in which percutaneous umbilical cord sampling was performed in an attempt to clarify a situation of possible fetal sex chromosome mosaicism in an amniotic fluid culture and led to the discovery that the mother herself had a 45,X/46,XX/ 47.XXX chromosome constitution. This may have simply represented the chance concurrence of pseudo-mosaicism in the amniotic fluid culture of a woman with an abnormal sex chromosome constitution, but it is also possible that the 45,X colony was maternal in origin. Although clearly a most unusual circumstance, the possibility should be kept in mind when termination of a pregnancy is being considered because of apparent mosaicism in a prenatal diagnostic study.     

The Autothermal Pyrolysis of Waste Tires

Abstract

The growing amount of rubber waste, such as that from tires and cables, has resulted in serious environmental problems. Since rubber waste is not easily biodegradable even after a long period of landfill treatment, material and energy recovery is the preferable alternative to disposal. The potential offered by waste tire pyrolysis for solving both energy and waste treatment problems is widely recognized. Pyrolysis is one method of inducing thermal decomposition without using any oxidizing agent, or using such a limited supply of the agent that oxidization does not proceed to an appreciable extent. The latter may be described as autothermal pyrolysis and will be studied in the present work.

The main objective of this research was to study the operating parameters of autothermal pyrolysis of scrap tires in a laboratory-scale fluidized bed reactor with a 100-cm bed height (10 cm I.D.) and a 100-cm freeboard (25 cm I.D.). Scrap tires were pyrolyzed in a limited oxygen supply, so that the heat for pyrolysis of the scrap tires was provided by combustion of some portion of the scrap tires. The operating parameters evaluated included the effect on the pyrolysis oil products and their relative proportions of (1) the air factor (O.O7–O35); (2) the pyrolysis temperature (370–570 °C); and (3) the catalyst added (zeolite and calcium carbonate). The results show that: (1) the composition of the liquid hydrocarbon obtained is affected significantly by the air factor; (2) the higher operating temperature caused a higher yield of gasoline and diesel; (3) the yield of gasoline increased due to the catalyst zeolite added, and the yield of diesel increased due to the addition of the catalyst calcium carbonate; (4) the principal constituents of gasoline included dipentene and diprene.     

The Relationship between the Quantity of Heavy Metal and PAHs in Fly Ash

ABSTRACT

Heavy metal and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in flue gas have received considerable attention in recent years due to their mutagenic or carcinogenic properties. The present study is carried out to investigate the influence of the quantity of heavy metals on PAHs formation in fly ash.

A fluidized bed incinerator was used in this experiment to obtain fly ash of chemical similarity by incinerating various compositions of waste. The obtained fly ash, both with and without heavy metal, were used to adsorb the PAHs in the flue gas and to investigate the formation of PAHs in fly ash. The results indicate that carbon and heavy metals most greatly influence the formation of PAHs in the fly ash. Carbon is absorptive; heavy metals encourage not only absorption of PAHs but also catalyze PAHs formation.     

Effects of acid treatments of activated carbon on its physiochemical structure as a support for copper oxide in DeSO(2) reaction catalysts

To enhance the dispersion of active sites, modification of the AC supports with different acid solution might result in various surface oxygen groups which act as anchoring sites for metallic precursor to stay and improve the reactivity between AC supports and copper precursor. In the present work, the AC support is tailored with HCl and HNO(3), respectively. The pore structure, surface oxygen groups of the AC support and catalysts as well as catalyst dispersion before and after acid treatments are systematically studied by BET, pH(slurry), TPD, and XRPD analyses. It is found that the order of activity in DeSO(2) reaction is as follows: Cu/AC-HCl>Cu/AC>Cu/AC-HNO(3). The same sequence is also observed for the pore structure of AC supports, the catalyst dispersion, but not for the amounts of CO(2) evolving during TPD experiments of supports. The key role of acid treatment on carbon surface chemistry and pore structure, which are closely related to catalyst dispersion and adsorption capacity, is examined to rationalize these findings. Furthermore, under the NO/NH(3)=1 the NO could be selective catalytic reduction with NH(3) in the presence of O(2), which catalyzed by fresh and spent AC-supported catalyst.     

The influence of pH on biological solubulization of oxidized, low-rank coal

Solubilization of nitric acid oxidized Texas lignite by either microorganisms or alkali were compared. Three fungi and three actinomycetes were able to solubilize small amounts of 3.2 N nitric acid-oxidized coal in liquid culture. A correlation was observed between increases in culture fluid pH and solubilization. Extraction of 8 N nitric acid-oxidized Texas lignite with alkaline buffers (pH 7, 8, 10, 11, and 12.3) resulted in extensive coal solubilization. UV-Vis spectra of most microbially solubilized samples were similar to those of alkali solubilized coal. Addition of alkali soluble Texas lignite to growing cultures resulted in no UV-Vis spectral changes with time for the majority of cultures tested. Taken together these data suggest that alkali production is a mechanism by which microorganisms solubilize oxidized coal.     

Pore structure effects on Ca-based sorbent sulfation capacity at medium temperatures: activated carbon as sorbent/catalyst support

The reaction between three different Ca-based sorbents and SO2 were studied in a medium temperature range (473-773 K). The largest SO2 capture was found with Ca(OH)2 at 773 K, 126.31 mg SO2 x g Ca(OH)2(-1), and the influence of SO2 concentration on the sorbent utilization was observed. Investigations of the internal porous structure of Ca-based sorbents showed that the initial reaction rate was controlled by the surface area, and once the sulfated products were produced, pore structure dominated. To increase the surface area of Ca-based sorbents available to interact with and retain SO2, one kind of CaO/ activated carbon (AC) sorbent/catalyst was prepared to study the effect of AC on the dispersion of Ca-based materials. The results indicated that the Ca-based material dispersed on high-surface-area AC had more capacities for SO2 than unsupported Ca-based sorbents. The initial reaction rates of the reaction between SO2 and Ca-based sorbents and the prepared CaO/AC sorbents/catalysts were measured. Results showed that the reaction rate apparently increased with the presence of AC. It was concluded that CaO/AC was the active material in the desulfurization reaction. AC acting as the support can play a role to supply O2 to increase the affinity to SO2. Moreover, when AC is acting as a support, the surface oxygen functional group formed on the surface of AC can serve as a new site for SO2 adsorption.     

Determination of the emissions from an aircraft auxiliary power unit (APU) during the Alternative Aviation Fuel Experiment (AAFEX)

The emissions from a Garrett-AiResearch (now Honeywell) Model GTCP85-98CK auxiliary power unit (APU) were determined as part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) Alternative Aviation Fuel Experiment (AAFEX) using both JP-8 and a coal-derived Fischer Tropsch fuel (FT-2). Measurements were conducted by multiple research organizations for sulfur dioxide (SO2, total hydrocarbons (THC), carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), speciated gas-phase emissions, particulate matter (PM) mass and number, black carbon, and speciated PM. In addition, particle size distribution (PSD), number-based geometric mean particle diameter (GMD), and smoke number were also determined from the data collected. The results of the research showed PM mass emission indices (EIs) in the range of 20 to 700 mg/kg fuel and PM number EIs ranging from 0.5 x 10(15) to 5 x 10(15) particles/kg fuel depending on engine load and fuel type. In addition, significant reductions in both the SO2 and PM EIs were observed for the use of the FT fuel. These reductions were on the order of approximately 90% for SO2 and particle mass EIs and approximately 60% for the particle number EI, with similar decreases observed for black carbon. Also, the size of the particles generated by JP-8 combustion are noticeably larger than those emitted by the APU burning the FT fuel with the geometric mean diameters ranging from 20 to 50 nm depending on engine load and fuel type. Finally, both particle-bound sulfate and organics were reduced during FT-2 combustion. The PM sulfate was reduced by nearly 100% due to lack of sulfur in the fuel, with the PM organics reduced by a factor of approximately 5 as compared with JP-8.     

The Capture of Heavy Metals from Incineration Using a Spray Dryer Integrated with a Fabric Filter Using Various Additives

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the effects of feedstock additives [polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and NaCl] and spray dryer additives (SiO₂, CaCl₂, NaHCO₃) on heavy metal and fly ash removal efficiencies, and on particle size distribution of heavy metals. A spray dryer with an integrated fabric filter was used as an air pollution control device (APCD). Removal efficiencies for fly ash and heavy metals were greater than 95 and 90%, respectively. When additives of PVC or NaCl were used, the concentration of heavy metals distributed in fly ash apparently varied when the particle diameter was <1 μm. Although the effects of the additives SiO₂, CaCl₂, and NaHCO₃ on the elemental size distribution of Cr were insignificant, these additives did slightly increase concentrations of Cd, Zn, and Pb partitioning in coarser particles (>1μm).     

The utilization of catalyst sorbent in scrubbing acid gases from incineration flue gas

Catalyst sorbents based on alumina-supported CuO, CeO2, and CuO-CeO2 were applied to a dry scrubber to clean up the SO2/HCl/NO simultaneously from pilot-scale fluidized-bed incineration flue gas. In the presence of organic compounds, CO and the submicron particles SO2 and HCI removed by the fresh catalyst sorbents and NO reduced to N2 by NH3 under the catalysis of fresh and spent desulfurization/dechloridization (DeSO2/DeHCl) catalyst sorbents (copper compounds, Cu, CuO, and CuSO4) were evaluated in this paper. The fresh and spent catalyst sorbents were characterized by the Brunner-Emmett-Teller method (BET), X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), and the elemental analyzer (EA). The study showed that the performances of CuO, CeO2, and CuO-CeO2/gamma-Al2O3 were better than that of Ca(OH)2. The removal efficiency of SO2 and HCl was 80-95% in the dry scrubber system. Under NH3/NO = 1, NO could not be reduced to N2 because it was difficult to control the ratio of air/fuel in the flue gas. For estimating the feasibility of regenerating the spent catalyst sorbents, BET and EA analyses were used. They indicated that the pore structures were nearly maintained and a small amount of carbon accumulated on their surface.