Applying Chemometrics to Evaluate Mine Tailings’ Potential As Partial Cement Replacement

This study investigates the utilization of mine tailings, the by-product originating from metal- and mineral-based ore mining, as a new cement replacement material. This paper is based on the chemical and physical characteristics of 13 mine tailing samples. In this study, Chemometrics were applied to consider all parameters simultaneously and obtain a thorough screening of potential relations in the large data set. Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) groups samples according to (dis)similar features and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) visualizes predominating variables and relations to samples. The application of HCA highlighted a clear grouping between mine tailings according to characteristics. Meanwhile, PCA identified the predominant chemical and physical characteristics in the mine tailing samples. Chemometrics therefore provided a thorough overview of mine tailings’ physical and chemical characteristics. Keywords: mine tailings, chemometrics, cement replacemen

Degradation of oil products in a soil from a Russian Barents hot-spot during electrodialytic remediation

A highly oil-polluted soil from Krasnoe in North-West Russia was used to investigate the degradation of organic pollutants during electrodialytic remediation. Removal efficiencies were up to 70 % for total hydrocarbons (THC) and up to 65 % for polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). Relatively more of the lighter PAH compounds and THC fractions were degraded. A principal component analysis (PCA) revealed a difference in the distribution of PAH compounds after the remediation. The observed clustering of experiments in the PCA scores plot was assessed to be related to the stirring rate. Multivariate analysis of the experimental settings and final concentrations in the 12 experiments revealed that the stirring rate of the soil suspension was by far the most important parameter for the remediation for both THC and PAH. Light was the second most important variable for PAH and seems to influence degradation. The experimental variables current density and remediation time did not significantly influence the degradation of the organic pollutants. Despite current density not influencing the remediation, there is potential for degrading organic pollutants during electrodialytic removal of heavy metals, as long as a stirred set-up is applied. Depending on remediation objectives, further optimisation may be needed in order to develop efficient remediation strategies

Recolonization and recovery of an Arctic benthic community subject to mine-tailings deposits

Deposition of large volumes of mine tailings takes place in several Norwegian fjords, but the impacts on marine ecosystems have received relatively little scientific attention. At a 40 + − year old tailing deposition area for a copper mine in the Arctic fjord Repparfjorden, we investigated both short-term colonization of mine tailingscontaminated sediments through a field experiment, and the present faunal state in the old deposit area. Copper-concentrations at the old deposition site were still high (up to 291 mg/kg dry weight (dw)), and exceeded the Norwegian environmental-quality threshold (84 mg/kg dw). Furthermore, copper was identified as a significant structuring factor for the fauna in the fjord, although faunal diversity was relatively high and the community not severely disturbed. In the colonization experiment, experimental boxes filled with defaunated sediment capped with mine tailings were subject to colonization for 15 months. Benthic macrofaunal communities were successfully established in all boxes, but the boxes with tailings showed lower species richness, abundance and biomass than the controls. Mine tailings continue to have local impacts on seafloor communities decades after deposition, and even low levels of metal-rich sediments can affect faunal recruitment. These results have implications for submarine deposition of mining waste and the impacts they have on coastal ecosystems

Alterations in fecal microbiota composition by probiotic supplementation in healthy adults:a systematic review of randomized controlled trials

BACKGROUND: The effects of probiotic supplementation on fecal microbiota composition in healthy adults have not been well established. We aimed to provide a systematic review of the potential evidence for an effect of probiotic supplementation on the composition of human fecal microbiota as assessed by high-throughput molecular approaches in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of healthy adults. METHODS: The survey of peer-reviewed papers was performed on 17 August 2015 by a literature search through PubMed, SCOPUS, and ISI Web of Science. Additional papers were identified by checking references of relevant papers. Search terms included healthy adult, probiotic, bifidobacterium, lactobacillus, gut microbiota, fecal microbiota, intestinal microbiota, intervention, and (clinical) trial. RCTs of solely probiotic supplementation and placebo in healthy adults that examined alteration in composition of overall fecal microbiota structure assessed by shotgun metagenomic sequencing, 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing, or phylogenetic microarray methods were included. Independent collection and quality assessment of studies were performed by two authors using predefined criteria including methodological quality assessment of reports of the clinical trials based on revised tools from PRISMA/Cochrane and by the Jadad score. RESULTS: Seven RCTs investigating the effect of probiotic supplementation on fecal microbiota in healthy adults were identified and included in the present systematic review. The quality of the studies was assessed as medium to high. Still, no effects were observed on the fecal microbiota composition in terms of α-diversity, richness, or evenness in any of the included studies when compared to placebo. Only one study found that probiotic supplementation significantly modified the overall structure of the fecal bacterial community in terms of β-diversity when compared to placebo. CONCLUSIONS: This systematic review of the pertinent literature demonstrates a lack of evidence for an impact of probiotics on fecal microbiota composition in healthy adults. Future studies would benefit from pre-specifying the primary outcome and transparently reporting the results including effect sizes, confidence intervals, and P values as well as providing a clear distinction of between-group and within-group comparisons

Electrodialytic upgrading of three different municipal solid waste incineration residue types with focus on Cr, Pb, Zn, Mn, Mo, Sb, Se, V, Cl and SO₄

Handling of air pollution control (APC) residues from municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) is a challenge due to its toxicity and high leaching of toxic elements and salts. Electrodialysis (ED) of the material has shown potential for reduction of leaching of toxic elements and salts to produce a material feasible for substitution of cement in mortar. In this work results of 23 pilot-scale experiments (5–8 kg APC residue each) in electrodialysis stack designed to investigate the leaching properties as a function of time and current density for APC residue from semi-dry and wet flue-gas cleaning systems, as well as MSWI fly ash without flue-gas cleaning products are reported. Significant leaching reduction of the critical elements Pb, Zn and Cl was obtained. The final leaching, however, depended mostly on the initial leaching, thus as leaching from fly ash and residue of wet flue-gas cleaning was lower before treatment compared to residues from semidry flue-gas cleaning, both Pb and Zn leaching could be reduced to lower levels in those materials, and they therefore appear more suitable for use in construction materials. The leaching reduction of Zn and to some degree Pb decreased with longer retention times and higher current densities. Cr and SO4 leaching increased during ED treatment, with lower increase at higher current. Washing or carbonation in combination with ED significantly reduced leaching of Pb and Zn from semidry residue. An indication of a similar effect to carbonation by simultaneous aeration with ED was observed and should be investigated further. While Mn and Mo leaching did not, Se, V and Sb leaching exceeded threshold values in semidry residue. The leaching of V seemed to increase while Se and Sb remained more or less constant during ED treatment.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Thermodynamics of Heat Shock Response

Production of heat shock proteins are induced when a living cell is exposed to a rise in temperature. The heat shock response of protein DnaK synthesis in E.coli for temperature shifts from temperature T to T plus 7 degrees, respectively to T minus 7 degrees is measured as function of the initial temperature T. We observe a reversed heat shock at low T. The magnitude of the shock increases when one increase the distance to the temperature $T_0 \approx 23^o$, thereby mimicking the non monotous stability of proteins at low temperature. Further we found that the variation of the heat shock with T quantitatively follows the thermodynamic stability of proteins with temperature. This suggest that stability related to hot as well as cold unfolding of proteins is directly implemented in the biological control of protein folding. We demonstrate that such an implementation is possible in a minimalistic chemical network.Comment: To be published in Physical Review Letter