Interference Effects of Salinity on Growth and Some Metabolic Activities of Two Chlorella Species

The unicellular green algae Chlorella minutissima and Chlorella oocystoides were isolated from different regions in Upper Egypt. The effect of different concentrations of salinity (100, 250 and 500 mM NaCl) on growth parameters (optical density, dry weight, and total photosynthetic pigments) and primary products (total carbohydrates, total proteins, and lipids contents) were measured after 7 days. The growth parameters, and the primary products of Chlorella minutissima and Chlorella oocystoides were significantly increased at lower and moderate concentrations (100 and 250 mM NaCl). Under higher concentration 500 mM of NaCl, the growth parameters, and the primary products (total carbohydrates, and total proteins) were significantly decreased. However, the lipid contents were markedly increased.Keywords: Chlorella minutissima, Chlorella oocystoides, cell growth, total carbohydrates, total proteins and lipid contents

Interference Effects of Salinity on Growth and Some Metabolic Activities of Two Chlorella Species

The unicellular green algae Chlorella minutissima and Chlorella oocystoides were isolated from different regions in Upper Egypt. The effect of different concentrations of salinity (100, 250 and 500 mM NaCl) on growth parameters (optical density, dry weight, and total photosynthetic pigments) and primary products (total carbohydrates, total proteins, and lipids contents) were measured after 7 days. The growth parameters, and the primary products of Chlorella minutissima and Chlorella oocystoides were significantly increased at lower and moderate concentrations (100 and 250 mM NaCl). Under higher concentration 500 mM of NaCl, the growth parameters, and the primary products (total carbohydrates, and total proteins) were significantly decreased. However, the lipid contents were markedly increased

Free space super focusing using all dielectric hyperbolic metamaterial

© 2020, The Author(s). Despite that Hyperbolic Metamaterial (HMM) has demonstrated sub-wavelength focusing inside of it, sub-wavelength imaging in free space of HMM is rarely introduced. The decay of hyperbolic momentum space outside the hyperbolic medium has hindered the realization of sub-wavelengh focusing in the near field of HMM. Furthermore, manipulating the negatively refracted waves exiting the HMM have addressed another major obstacle to realize free space sub-wavelength focusing. In this work, we report extended sub-wavelength focusing in free space based on negative refraction of light exiting the HMM. The proposed structure is composed of multilayers of doped InAs/intrinsic InAs integrated with metallic slit. We theoretically simulate the doped InAs/intrinsic InAs HMM and investigate the negative refraction behavior outside the HMM. We optimized the structure for achieving high resolution down to 0.2λ, extended to a distance of 3.2 µm in free space. Also, sub-wavelength focusing in free space has been studied at different doping concentrations showing that the small doping concentrations exhibit enhancement in resolution at short distances up to 600 nm away from the HMM. Extending the focusing distance is achieved up to distance 3.5 µm from the hyperbolic structure by manipulating the doping concentration. This proposed lens configuration is expected to find potential usage in mid IR thermal imaging and photolithography application

Spectrophotometric determination of erbium using kojic acid dye in different rare earth concentrates

A sensitive and selective spectrophotometric method was studied for the determination of erbium (Er) with kojic acid dye (koj) and cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) as a cationic surfactant from Egyptian monazite and xenotime concentrates using third derivative spectrophotometry. The calibration curve was linear from 1 to 150 µg/mL erbium. The influence of various parameters and reaction conditions for optimum complex formation were investigated. The relative standard deviation for determination of 1 µg/mL erbium was found to be 1.5 after 5 repeated determinations with percentage error for Er determination from monazite and xenotime concentrates 6.4% and 4.48% respectively. The molar absorptivity of conventional and third derivative spectrum were 0.14 × 103 M−1 cm−1 and 0.13 × 103 M−1 cm−1 respectively and the detection limit was 1 µg/mL. Keywords: Erbium, Kojic acid dye, Cetylpyridinium chloride, Egyptian monazite, Xenotim

Treatment of the oily produced water (OPW) using coagulant mixtures

Treatment of the oily produced water (OPW) before injection into oil reservoirs is necessary to reduce formation damage. This can be done using chemo-physical process to minimize the oil droplets in water. In this respect, this work aims to extract natural polymer (chitosan) from shrimp shells and mix it with coagulants (chitosan/carboxy methyl cellulose and chitosan/aluminum sulfate) to adsorb oil from OPW. Adsorption experiments were carried out in batch mode firstly to choose the best coagulants in water treatment, also to investigate the effects of pH on the adsorption uptake, adsorbent dosage, coagulant mixture doses and contact time. It was found that the oil removal by chitosan reached 96.35% and 59% at pH = 4 and pH = 9, respectively. The ability of chitosan to remove oil was increased after adding different coagulants CMC/or aluminum sulfate at average mixing time between 30 and 60 min. It was also found that the highest removal efficiency of chitosan/CMC is 99% at (90% chitosan: 10% CMC) and chitosan/Al2(SO4)3 is 85% at (80% chitosan: 20% Al2(SO4)3). The SEM photographs of chitosan, chitosan/CMC and chitosan/Al2(SO4)3 mixture as oil removal showed that chitosan/Al2(SO4)3 lies between chitosan alone and chitosan/CMC mixture. Generally chitosan/CMC characterized significantly by its high ability to adsorb petroleum oil and suspended solids from OPW, additionally, reduces the economic cost of water treatment

Phosphorus and biofertilizer application effects on growth parameters, yield and chemical constituents of broccoli

Broccoli is a popular vegetable throughout the world and contains important nutritional features. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect the fertilization with different phosphorus sources (i.e., soil application of rock phosphate (RP) at 428 kg ha−1, calcium superphosphate (CSP) at 670 kg ha−1, phosphoric acid (PA) at 126 L ha−1 and monoammonium phosphate (MAP) at 334 kg ha−1 ) combined with biofertilizers (i.e., inoculation with phosphorin or mycorrhiza) on plant growth aspects, antioxidants enzyme activity, chemical constituents, yield and quality of broccoli leaves and heads (Brassica oleracea var. italica Plenck). The experiment was performed according to the randomized complete block design with three replications (n = 3), for two growing seasons (2018–2019) at the experimental farm of Benha University, Egypt. The obtained results showed that the highest values of plant height, leaf area, fresh and dry weight of leaves/plant, head weight and diameter, and the highest yield of heads ha−1 were recorded in plants that received MAP fertilizer and were inoculated with mycorrhiza. On the other hand, the highest value of head length, total carbohydrate and total soluble solids (TSS) content were observed in plants fertilized with PA and inoculated with mycorrhiza. The highest leaf nitrogen % and head ascorbic acid content, as well as the lowest head total phenol content were recorded in plants supplemented with MAP fertilizer and inoculated with mycorrhiza. Moreover, broccoli plants fertilized with PA and inoculated with mycorrhiza showed promising results in terms of phosphorus, potassium and total carbohydrate content, antioxidant activity and dehydrogenase activity. In conclusion, phosphorus may affect plant growth, yield and chemical parameters in broccoli plants depending on the fertilizer source, while inoculation with mycorrhiza may also have a beneficial impact on these parameters. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Alterations in proteins and amino acids of the Nile cyanobacteria Pseudanabaena limnetica and Anabaena wisconsinense in response to industrial wastewater pollution

The effect of industrial wastewater on the Nile cyanobacteria Pseudanabaena limnetica and Anabaena wisconsinense was investigated. The data showed that P. limnetica was more sensitive to pollution than A. wisconsinense. The treatments with different levels of wastewater exerted pronounced reductions in protein and amino acids content. SDS-PAGE analysis revealed that the cyanobacteria grown in the industrial wastewater showed induction in the synthesis of certain polypeptides and repression of others. The treatments of P. limnetica with wastewater stimulated the appearance of six protein bands with molecular masses of 28, 30, 31, 32, 58 and 97 kDa. The same treatments caused the disappearance of 20, 38 and 56 kDa. The structural protein pattern of the treated A. wisconsinense showed appearance of 16, 30, 170 and 230 kDa and disappearance of 56 kDa. The treatment of the two investigated cyanobacteria with different levels of wastewater stimulated the biosyntheses of different amino acids and inhibited others