18 research outputs found
Characterization of Granulations of Calcium and Apatite in Serum as Pleomorphic Mineralo-Protein Complexes and as Precursors of Putative Nanobacteria
Calcium and apatite granulations are demonstrated here to form in both human and
fetal bovine serum in response to the simple addition of either calcium or
phosphate, or a combination of both. These granulations are shown to represent
precipitating complexes of protein and hydroxyapatite (HAP) that display marked
pleomorphism, appearing as round, laminated particles, spindles, and films.
These same complexes can be found in normal untreated serum, albeit at much
lower amounts, and appear to result from the progressive binding of serum
proteins with apatite until reaching saturation, upon which the mineralo-protein
complexes precipitate. Chemically and morphologically, these complexes are
virtually identical to the so-called nanobacteria (NB) implicated in numerous
diseases and considered unusual for their small size, pleomorphism, and the
presence of HAP. Like NB, serum granulations can seed particles upon transfer to
serum-free medium, and their main protein constituents include albumin,
complement components 3 and 4A, fetuin-A, and apolipoproteins A1 and B100, as
well as other calcium and apatite binding proteins found in the serum. However,
these serum mineralo-protein complexes are formed from the direct chemical
binding of inorganic and organic phases, bypassing the need for any biological
processes, including the long cultivation in cell culture conditions deemed
necessary for the demonstration of NB. Thus, these serum granulations may result
from physiologically inherent processes that become amplified with calcium
phosphate loading or when subjected to culturing in medium. They may be viewed
as simple mineralo-protein complexes formed from the deployment of
calcification-inhibitory pathways used by the body to cope with excess calcium
phosphate so as to prevent unwarranted calcification. Rather than representing
novel pathophysiological mechanisms or exotic lifeforms, these results indicate
that the entities described earlier as NB most likely originate from calcium and
apatite binding factors in the serum, presumably calcification inhibitors, that
upon saturation, form seeds for HAP deposition and growth. These calcium
granulations are similar to those found in organisms throughout nature and may
represent the products of more general calcium regulation pathways involved in
the control of calcium storage, retrieval, tissue deposition, and disposal
High Efficiency Solar Thermal Collectors Utilization in Process Heat: A Case Study of Textile Finishing Industry
Solar energy, since it is available every day, is seen as one of the most valuable renewable energy resources. Thus, the energy of sun should be efficiently used in various applications. The most known applications that use solar energy are heating water and spaces. High efficiency solar collectors need appropriate selective surfaces to absorb the heat. Selective surfaces (Selektif-Sera) used in this study are applied to flat collectors, which are produced by a roll to roll cost effective coating of nano nickel layers, developed in Selektif Teknoloji Co. Inc. Efficiency of flat collectors using Selektif-Sera absorbers are calculated in collaboration with Institute for Solar Technik Rapperswil, Switzerland. The main cause of high energy consumption in industry is mostly caused from low temperature level processes. There is considerable effort in research to minimize the energy use by renewable energy sources such as solar energy. A feasibility study will be presented to obtain the potential of solar thermal energy utilization in the textile industry using these solar collectors. For the feasibility calculations presented in this study, textile dyeing and finishing factory located at Kahramanmaras is selected since the geographic location was an important factor. Kahramanmaras is located in the south east part of Turkey thus has a great potential to have solar illumination much longer. It was observed that, the collector area is limited by the available area in the factory, thus a hybrid heating generating system (lignite/solar thermal) was preferred in the calculations of this study to be more realistic. During the feasibility work, the calculations took into account the preheating process, where well waters heated from 15 °C to 30-40 °C by using the hot waters in heat exchangers. Then the preheated water was heated again by high efficiency solar collectors. Economic comparison between the lignite use and solar thermal collector use was provided to determine the optimal system that can be used efficiently. The optimum design of solar thermal systems was studied depending on the optimum collector area. It was found that the solar thermal system is more economic and efficient than the merely lignite use. Return on investment time is calculated as 5.15 years