Treatment of mature landfill leachate by biofilters and Fenton oxidation

A series of processes by biofilter and Fenton oxidation to treat mature landfill leachate has been devised. At a hydraulic loading rate of 20 l m^?3 d^?1, a biofilter packed with aged refuse is found to remove 80% of chemical oxygen demand (COD), 89% of ammonia nitrogen and 96% of total phosphorus (TP). Particularly, TP levels dropped below 1 mg l^?1. The optimal condition for Fenton oxidation was selected to be an initial pH of 5, a dosage of 0.01 and 0.02 mol l^?1 of FeSO₄ and H₂O₂, respectively, and a duration of 3 h, where COD removal efficiency reaches 58.6%, and BOD₅/COD ratio is raised from 0.05 to 0.20. Subsequent treatment by a biofilter packed with slag reduces COD, ammonia nitrogen levels to less than 100, 25 mg l^?1, respectively. A pilot scale experiment conducted in situ demonstrates that this series of processes exhibits a high efficiency in removing pollutants from mature landfill leachate and it is viable for application.     

The platelet-activating factor acetylhydrolase gene derived from Trichoderma harzianum induces maize resistance to Curvularia lunata through the jasmonic acid signaling pathway

Platelet-activating factor acetylhydrolase (PAF-AH) derived from Trichoderma harzianum was upregulated by the interaction of T. harzianum with maize roots or the foliar pathogen Curvularia lunata. PAF-AH was associated with chitinase and cellulase expressions, but especially with chitinase, because its activity in the KO40 transformant (PAF-AH disruption transformant) was lower, compared with the wild-type strain T28. The result demonstrated that the colonization of maize roots by T. harzianum induced systemic protection of leaves inoculated with C. lunata. Such protection was associated with the expression of inducible jasmonic acid pathway-related genes. Moreover, the data from liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry confirmed that the concentration of jasmonic acid in maize leaves was associated with the expression level of defense-related genes, suggesting that PAF-AH induced resistance to the foliar pathogen. Our findings showed that PAF-AH had an important function in inducing systemic resistance to maize leaf spot pathogen.     

Removal of arsenic from aqueous solution by two types of nano TiO2 crystals

Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) is a promising sorbent for As removal. There are two main and physico-chemically distinct polymorphs of TiO₂ in nature, namely anatase and rutile. Since the difference of arsenic removal by the two polymorphs of TiO₂ is now well known, study on the arsenic removal efficiency and the underlying mechanism is of great significance in developing new remediation strategies for As-polluted waters. Here batch experiments were carried out in combination with instrumental analysis of X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to investigate the effects, influential factors and mechanisms of As removal from aqueous solution by two types of nano TiO₂ crystals. The adsorption behavior of anatase and rutile for As(V) and As(III) are well described by Freundlich equations. Anatase had higher As removal efficiency and adsorption capacity than rutile. Solution pH had no influence on the As adsorption of anatase TiO₂, whereas the As removal by rutile TiO₂ was increased by 7?C18% with pH from 4 to 10. Presence of accompanying anions such as phosphate, silicate, nitrate and sulfate, decreased the As(V) and As(III) removal by both crystals, with phosphate being the most effective. However, removal of As by rutile TiO₂ was greatly enhanced in the presence of divalent cations i.e. Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺. Shading of light decreased the removal of As(V) and As(III) of anatase by 15.5% and 17.5%, respectively, while a slight increase of As removal was observed in the case of Rutile TiO₂. FT-IR characterization of As(V) or As(III)-treated nano TiO₂ crystals indicated that both Ti-O and As-O groups participated in As adsorption. Both FT-IR and XPS analysis demonstrated that As(III) was photooxidated into As(V) when adsorbed by anatase under the light condition. Thus, the effect of crystal types and light condition on As removal should be taken into consideration when nano TiO₂ is applied for As removal from water.     

Morphological characteristics of waste polyethylene/polypropylene plastics during pyrolysis and representative morphological signal characterizing pyrolysis stages

In this work, the morphological characteristics of waste polyethylene (PE)/polypropylene (PP) plastics during their pyrolysis process were investigated, and based on their basic image changing patterns representative morphological signals describing the pyrolysis stages were obtained. PE and PP granules and films were used as typical plastics for testing, and influence of impurities was also investigated. During pyrolysis experiments, photographs of the testing samples were taken sequentially with a high-speed infrared camera, and the quantitative parameters that describe the morphological characteristics of these photographs were explored using the “Image Pro Plus (v6.3)” digital image processing software. The experimental results showed that plastics pyrolysis involved four stages: melting, two stages of decomposition which are characterized with bubble formation caused by volatile evaporating, and ash deposition; and each stage was characterized with its own phase changing behaviors and morphological features. Two stages of decomposition are the key step of pyrolysis since they took up half or more of the reaction time; melting step consumed another half of reaction time in experiments when raw materials were heated up from ambient temperatures; and coke-like deposition appeared as a result of decomposition completion. Two morphological signals defined from digital image processing, namely, pixel area of the interested reaction region and bubble ratio (BR) caused by volatile evaporating were found to change regularly with pyrolysis stages. In particular, for all experimental scenarios with plastics films and granules, the BR curves always exhibited a slowly drop as melting started and then a sharp increase followed by a deep decrease corresponding to the first stage of intense decomposition, afterwards a second increase – drop section corresponding to the second stage of decomposition appeared. As ash deposition happened, the BR dropped to zero or very low values. When impurities were involved, the shape of BR curves showed that intense decomposition started earlier but morphological characteristics remained the same. In addition, compared to parameters such as pressure, the BR reflects reaction stages better and its change with pyrolysis process of PE/PP plastics with or without impurities was more intrinsically process correlated; therefore it can be adopted as a signal for pyrolysis process characterization, as well as offering guide to process improvement and reactor design.     

石灰石-石膏湿法烟气脱硫效率影响因素

从石灰石-石膏湿法烟气脱硫工艺的流程、基本原理,研究了脱硫效率的影响因素:石灰石浆液pH值、钙硫比、液气比、吸收塔进口粉尘含量、烟气中SO_2浓度、烟气含氧量等烟气脱硫工艺条件对脱硫效率的影响。根据上述研究结果,从工艺及设备运行角度探讨如何控制适宜的工艺条件,优化提高石灰石-石膏湿法烟气脱硫工艺的脱硫效率,使烟气中SO_2排放浓度控制在25 mg/m~3左右,达到GB 13223—2011《火电厂大气污染物排放标准》中SO_2小于200 mg/m~3的排放标准。     

Effect of ultra-micro powder Dendrobium officinale on the molecular diversity of intestinal bacteria in mice with spleen-deficiency constipation北大核心CSCD

This research aimed to study the effect of ultra-micro powder Dendrobium officinale on the molecular diversity of intestinal bacteria in mice with spleen-deficiency constipation, in order to provide scientific basis for ultra-micro D. officinale therapy. The mice with spleen-deficiency constipation in treatment groups were respectively given the traditional decoction of D. officinale and 50% dose ultra-micro powder D. officinale. The metagenome DNA of intestinal flora was extracted from intestinal contents. Then ARDRA analysis was made after PCR by universal primer of bacteria. The results showed that OTUs, Shannon index and Brillouin index were the same between the normal group and the 50% dose ultra-micro powder group, and between the model group and the traditional decoction group, but greater in the former two groups than the latter ones. The similarity coefficient (0.500 0) was bigger between the 50% dose ultra-micro powder group and the normal group than between the model group and the traditional decoction group, which was 0.181 8. Both cluster analysis and principal components analysis showed that the molecular diversity of intestinal microbiotia in mice of 50% dose ultra-micro powder group was the closest to that in the normal group. The results showed that the weakened molecular diversity of intestinal bacteria in mice with spleen-deficiency constipation can be regulated by the two kinds of D. officinale treatments to different extent. The efficacy of 50% dose ultra-micro powder D. officinale is better than the traditional decoction.     

Cloning and expression analysis of ScBAK1 gene and its alternative spliceosome in sugarcane北大核心CSCD

Alternative splicing (AS) is an important part of regulation of eukaryotic gene expression. BAK1 (Brassinosteroid insensitive1-associated receptor kinase 1) is a specific type of plant serine/threonine protein kinases, and can regulate growth and development and natural immunization. To reveal the responses of sugarcane BAK1 gene to the adverse environment, a ScBAK1 gene and its alternative spliceosome, termed ScBAK1 (GenBank accession number: KP032226) and ScBAK1 S1 (GenBank accession number: KP032227), were cloned from leaf cDNA of Yacheng 05-179 utilizing the methods of electronic cloning and RT-PCR. The open reading frame (ORF) length of ScBAK1/ScBAK1 S1 gene was 1 860bp/1 770bp, encoding 619/589 amino acids residues. The predicted molecular weight of the protein was 69.28 kDa/ 65.76 kDa. Both proteins were located in plasma membrane, estimated as acid, hydrophikic and secretive proteins. Random coil and alpha helix gave priority to extended strand in their secondary structure without beta turn. The most important protein function was cell envelope, secondly biosynthesis of amino acids and cofactors. Real-time quantitative PCR analysis revealed that the expression of sugarcane ScBAK1 S1 gene exhibited the reduced expression trend under smut fungus stress and various abiotic exogenous stresses, including SA, CuCl2, PEG, ABA, NaCl and JA, while the expression of ScBAK1 gene was induced by SA, CuCl2, PEG, NaCl and smut fungus stresses. The phenomenon showed that the absent sequences or amounts of ScBAK1 S1 gene plays a key role in the response of ScBAK1 to the stress of sugarcane smut fungus, osmotic stress and cell growth. The differential expression of ScBAK1 and ScBAK1 S1 lays a foundation for further research on the function of ScBAK1 gene under biotic and abiotic stress.     

Toxicity evaluation of 10 oil gelling agents北大核心CSCD

Oil gelling agents are widely used in emergency response of marine oil spills. However, the biological toxicity of oil gelling agents is not well understood. This research aimed to evaluate the environmental safety of oil gelling agents used for rapid removal and cleanup of marine oil spills. We used luminescent bacteria (Acinetobacter sp. Tox2 and Acinetobacter sp. RecA) combined with exposure experiment using marine medaka (Oryzias melastigma) juveniles to detect the acute toxicity and genotoxicity of 10 oil gelling agents. As a result, a certain level of acute toxicity was detected from the oil gelling agent FOA and GMN-01 (the toxicity equivalent to 0.067 mg/L and 0.084 mg/L of HgCl2, respectively), and a certain level of genotoxicity was detected from the oil gelling agent NORSOREX (the toxicity equivalent to 0.307 mg/L of MMC) by the luminescent bacteria test. However, no obvious acute toxicity or genotoxicity was detected from the above three oil gelling agents in fish-exposure experiments. Our results suggest that the 10 oil gelling agents have no obvious acute toxicity or genotoxicity to higher organisms (including marine medaka). The luminescent bacteria test is more sensitive in detecting biological toxicity of oil gelling agents. This study provides a reference for environmental safety evaluation of the oil gelling agents used in the cleaning up of the marine oil spills.     

Review on the study of mercury/silver ions-pyrimidine base pairs in DNA duplexes and their application in detection technology北大核心CSCD

Nucleic acids and their analogues are getting more and more attention. Metal-mediated base pairs as a kind of simple and functionalized nucleic acids in special positions have widened the scope of application of functional nucleic acids and their analogues. In this type of base pairs, the representative is the interaction between metal ions and pyrimidine bases, especially the research on thymine-Hg2+-thymine (T-Hg2+-T) and cytosine-Ag+-cytosine (C-Ag+-C) base pairs. This review summarizes the structure and mechanism of metal-mediate pyrimidine base pairs as well as the application in the biochemical analysis. It explores the mode and ratio of coordination between metal ions and base pairs, the effects on the stability of DNA helical structure, the related crystal structure and the three-dimensional configuration information in the DNA helix. The analytical application mainly includes various probes of metal ions, small molecules, protein and the detection of single nucleotide polymorphism. Among them the most widely used metal ions detection, and its combination with spectrum technology, visualization and amplification technology greatly promoted the rapid development of sensitive detection technology. In further studies, it is necessary to reveal the mechanism of interaction between T-Hg2+-T and C-Ag+-C, and more attention should be paid to combining of T-Hg2+-T and C-Ag+-C base pairs with other new technologies. The scope of practical application should also be further extended.