A review of treating oily wastewater

AbstractPetroleum refining unavoidably generates large volumes of oily wastewater. The environmentally acceptable disposal of oily wastewater is a current challenge to the petroleum industry. Nowadays, more attention has been focused on the treatment techniques of oily wastewater. Therefore, oily wastewater treatment has become an urgent problem, and it must be explored and resolved by every oilfield and petroleum company. The development status of treatment methods was summarized from six aspects, which contains flotation, coagulation, biological treatment, membrane separation technology, combined technology and advanced oxidation process. Finally, the development and prospect of treating oily wastewater was predicted

Assessment of Long-Term Watershed Management on Reservoir Phosphorus Concentrations and Export Fluxes.

Source water nutrient management to prevent eutrophication requires critical strategies to reduce watershed phosphorus (P) loadings. Shanxi Drinking-Water Source Area (SDWSA) in eastern China experienced severe water quality deterioration before 2010, but showed considerable improvement following application of several watershed management actions to reduce P. This paper assessed the changes in total phosphorus (TP) concentrations and fluxes at the SDWSA outlet relative to watershed anthropogenic P sources during 2005⁻2016. Overall anthropogenic P inputs decreased by 21.5% over the study period. Domestic sewage, livestock, and fertilizer accounted for (mean ± SD) 18.4 ± 0.6%, 30.1 ± 1.9%, and 51.5 ± 1.5% of total anthropogenic P inputs during 2005⁻2010, compared to 24.3 ± 2.7%, 8.8 ± 10.7%, and 66.9 ± 8.0% for the 2011⁻2016 period, respectively. Annual average TP concentrations in SDWSA decreased from 0.041 ± 0.019 mg/L in 2009 to 0.025 ± 0.013 mg/L in 2016, a total decrease of 38.2%. Annual P flux exported from SDWSA decreased from 0.46 ± 0.04 kg P/(ha·a) in 2010 to 0.25 ± 0.02 kg P/(ha·a) in 2016, a decrease of 44.9%. The success in reducing TP concentrations was mainly due to the development of domestic sewage/refuse collection/treatment and improved livestock management. These P management practices have prevented harmful algal blooms, providing for safe drinking water

What is Needed for Future 3D Printing from Maker’S Viewpoints

This study focused on investigating makers’ opinions about current 3D printing technology to foster the development and use of 3D printing technologies in Taiwan. 3D printing has revolutionized the manufacturing industries as it provided a highly flexible, customizable way of small-quantity production at low cost. Its popularity among general users, however, encountered difficulties such as high requirements in skills, less user-friendliness, lack of practicality, low reliability, etc. Makers, a special group of customers of 3D printers are familiar with problems of this technology as they shared experience on the Internet, started collaborative manufacturing with open sources and turned their DIY activities into E-business. The study utilized questionnaires in the makers’ space to obtain the background of this special group of customers, their viewpoints regarding important features to consider for purchasing a 3D printer, and difficulties and solutions in propagation of 3D printing. The results demonstrated that makers were a group of extrovert and intuitive thinkers in terms of MBTI personalities and treasured printing precision (surface quality), stability (long tuning period) and easy maintenance as most attractive factors to customers. From their viewpoints, difficulties in use, customers’ low interests, and lack of practicality of its products were rated top 3 problems for 3D printing. However, school education, propagation of makers’ space and development of ease-to-use 3D software may help its popularity. The results of this study may help 3D printer manufacturers and 3D printing service providers to better understand their customers’ behaviors, based on which better 3D printing services and 3D printers can be developed to improve their business

Regulatory mechanism and promising clinical application of exosomal circular RNA in gastric cancer

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide and the leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Exosomes are nanoscale extracellular vesicles secreted by a variety of cells and play an important role in cellular communication and epigenetics by transporting bioactive substances in the tumor microenvironment (TME). Circular RNA (circRNA) is a type of non-coding RNA (ncRNA) with a specific structure, which is widely enriched in exosomes and is involved in various pathophysiological processes mediated by exosomes. Exosomal circRNAs play a critical role in the development of GC by regulating epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), angiogenesis, proliferation, invasion, migration, and metastasis of GC. Given the biological characteristics of exosomal circRNAs, they have more significant diagnostic sensitivity and specificity in the clinic and may become biomarkers for GC diagnosis and prognosis. In this review, we briefly describe the biogenesis of exosomes and circRNAs and their biological functions, comprehensively summarize the mechanisms of exosomal circRNAs in the development of GC and chemotherapy resistance, and finally, we discuss the potential clinical application value and challenges of exosomal circRNAs in GC

Assessment of genetic diversity and relationships among Osmanthus fragrans cultivars using AFLP markers

This study was conducted to reveal genetic diversity among 100 Osmanthus fragrans cultivars using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers. Eight AFLP primer combinations produced a total of 443 polymorphic fragments with an average of 64 per primer combination. The percentage of polymorphic bands (86.81%), the resolving power (Rp) (32.71) and the PIC values (0.331) showed the efficiency of used primer combinations. The revealed AFLP makers were effective in distinguishing all the cultivars considered. Cluster analysis were performed to assess patterns of diversity among cultivars and showed the abundant genetic diversity. The overall distribution pattern of molecular variation suggested that 93.33% of the total genetic variance was within the identified groups and 6.67% of the genetic variation was among the identified groups. Our results showed that AFLP markers are useful for Osmanthus fragrans germplasm discrimination as well as for investigation of genetic diversity and variation. The information will facilitate germplasm identi\ufb01cation, conservation and new cultivar developmen

Influence of Baking Degree on the Content of Chlorogenic Acid in Coffee by High Performance Liquid Chromatography

The effect of baking degree on the change of seven chlorogenic acid compounds in 10 different origins (origin 1: Yunnan, origin 2: Africa and America) of Cardim coffee. The content of chlorogenic acid, neochlorogenic acid, cryptochlorogenic acid, isochlorogenic acid A, isochlorogenic acid B, isochlorogenic acid C and 5-ferulicquinic acid in green coffee and baked coffee were determined by high performance liquid chromategraphy (HPLC). The optimum extraction conditions of seven chlorogenic acid compounds were optimized by response surface methodology. 100 mL 0.1% phosphoric acid solution was extracted in water bath for 30 min, and the calibration curves of the seven chlorogenic acid compounds showed good linearity with correlation coefficients of above 0.999 4 in the range of 2~150 mg/L. Limit of the detection (LOD) and the limit of the quantitative (LOQ) were 0.005~0.5 mg/g and 0.02~2 mg/g respectively. The content of chlorogenic acid in green coffee beans was the highest, followed by 5-ferulicquinic acid. With the increase of baking degree, the content of chlorogenic acid and 5-ferulicquinic acid decreased significantly (P<0.05). The content of neochlorogenic acid and cryptochlorogenic acid increased first and then decreased. The degradation rate of isochlorogenic acid A was significantly higher than that of isochlorogenic acid B and isochlorogenic acid C. The degradation rate of chlorogenic acid and 5-ferulicquinic acid was relatively stable compared with the other six kinds of chlorogenic acid. Through the study of the content changes of seven kinds of chlorogenic acid compounds under different baking degrees can further evaluate the efficacy of chlorogenic acids in coffee, and provide a reference basis for the quality control of coffee baking

The anaphase promoting complex impacts repair choice by protecting ubiquitin signalling at DNA damage sites

Double-strand breaks (DSBs) are repaired through two major pathways, homology-directed recombination (HDR) and non-homologous end joining (NHEJ). While HDR can only occur in S/G2, NHEJ can happen in all cell cycle phases (except mitosis). How then is the repair choice made in S/G2 cells? Here we provide evidence demonstrating that APCCdh1 plays a critical role in choosing the repair pathways in S/G2 cells. Our results suggest that the default for all DSBs is to recruit 53BP1 and RIF1. BRCA1 is blocked from being recruited to broken ends because its recruitment signal, K63-linked poly-ubiquitin chains on histones, is actively destroyed by the deubiquitinating enzyme USP1. We show that the removal of USP1 depends on APCCdh1 and requires Chk1 activation known to be catalysed by ssDNA-RPA-ATR signalling at the ends designated for HDR, linking the status of end processing to RIF1 or BRCA1 recruitment.We thank S.-Y. Lin (MD Anderson Cancer Center) for cell lines; J. Rosen (Baylor College of Medicine) for reagents; H. Masai (Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science) for U2OS-Fucci cell line; D. Durocher (University of Toronto) for HeLa-Fucci cell line; E. Citterio (Netherlands Cancer Institute) for GFP-USP3 construct; M.S.Y. Huen (The University of Hong Kong) for RNF168 antibody. This work was performed with facilities and instruments in the Imaging Core of National Center for Protein Science (Beijing), the Cytometry and Cell Sorting Core at Baylor College of Medicine with funding from the NIH (P30 AI036211, P30 CA125123 and S10 RR024574), the Integrated Microscopy Core at Baylor College of Medicine with funding from the NIH (HD007495, DK56338 and CA125123), and the John S. Dunn Gulf Coast Consortium for Chemical Genomics. We also thank other members of the Zhang lab for helpful discussion and support. This work was supported in part by an international collaboration grant (# 2013DFB30210) and a 973 Project grant (# 2013CB910300) from Chinese Minister of Science and Technology, in part by a Chinese National Natural Science Foundation grant (# 81171920), in part by a grant from The Committee of Science and Technology of Beijing Municipality, China (# Z141100000214015), and in part by NIH grants CA116097 and CA122623 to P.Z. J.J. is supported by grants from National Institutes of Health (R01GM102529) and the Welch Foundation (AU-1711). S.H. is supported by grants (# 81272488 and 81472795) from Chinese National Natural Science Foundation. Y.Z. is supported by grants from the National Natural Scientific Foundation of China (No. 81430055), Programs for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (No. IRT_15R13).S

Synergistic variation of rhizosphere soil phosphorus availability and microbial diversity with stand age in plantations of the endangered tree species Parashorea chinensis

IntroductionSoil physicochemical properties and nutrient composition play a significant role in shaping microbial communities, and facilitating soil phosphorus (P) transformation. However, studies on the mechanisms of interactions between P transformation characteristics and rhizosphere microbial diversity in P-deficient soils on longer time scales are still limited.MethodsIn this study, rhizosphere soils were collected from a pure plantation of Parashorea chinensis (P. chinensis) at six stand ages in the subtropical China, and the dynamic transformation characteristics of microbial diversity and P fractions were analyzed to reveal the variation of their interactions with age.ResultsOur findings revealed that the rhizosphere soils across stand ages were in a strongly acidic and P-deficient state, with pH values ranging from 3.4 to 4.6, and available P contents ranging from 2.6 to 7.9 mg·kg-1. The adsorption of P by Fe3+ and presence of high levels of steady-state organic P highly restricted the availability of P in soil. On long time scales, acid phosphatase activity and microbial biomass P were the main drivers of P activation. Moreover, pH, available P, and ammonium nitrogen were identified as key factors driving microbial community diversity. As stand age increased, most of the nutrient content indicators firstly increased and then decreased, the conversion of other forms of P to bio-available P became difficult, P availability and soil fertility began to decline. However, bacteria were still able to maintain stable species abundance and diversity. In contrast, stand age had a greater effect on the diversity of the fungal community than on the bacteria. The Shannon and Simpson indices varied by 4.81 and 0.70 for the fungi, respectively, compared to only 1.91 and 0.06 for the bacteria. Microorganisms play a dominant role in the development of their relationship with soil P.DiscussionIn conclusion, rhizosphere microorganisms in P. chinensis plantations gradually adapt to the acidic, low P environment over time. This adaptation is conducive to maintaining P bioeffectiveness and alleviating P limitation