Condition Monitoring for Twin-Fluid Nozzles with Internal Mixing

Liquid sprays of water are frequently used in air pollution control for gas cooling purposes and for gas cleaning. Twin-fluid nozzles with internal mixing are often used for these purposes because of the small size of the drops produced. In these nozzles the liquid is dispersed by compressed air or another pressurized gas. In high efficiency scrubbers for particle separation, several nozzles are operated in parallel because of the size of the cross section. In such scrubbers, the scrubbing water has to be re-circulated. Precipitation of some solid material can occur in the liquid circuit, caused by chemical reactions. When such precipitations are detached from the place of formation, they can partly or totally block the liquid flow to a nozzle. Due to the resulting unbalanced supply of the nozzles with water and gas, the efficiency of separation decreases. Thus, the nozzles have to be cleaned if a certain fraction of blockages is reached. The aim of this study was to provide a tool for continuously monitoring the status of the nozzles of a scrubber based on the available operation data (water flow, air flow, water pressure and air pressure). The difference between the air pressure and the water pressure is not well suited for this purpose, because the difference is quite small and therefore very exact calibration of the pressure measurement would be required. Therefore, an equation for the reference air flow of a nozzle at the actual water flow and operation pressure was derived. This flow can be compared with the actual air flow for assessment of the status of the nozzles

Distribution of Heavy Metals and Other Components in the Various Size Fractions of House Dust

Abstract -For the investigation of the distribution of heavy metals and other components in the various size fractions of house dust the dust sample was separated into size fractions by sieving and air classification. The analysis of the size fractions shows that the heavy metals and the other components are not uniformly distributed in the different size fractions. The highest total carbon (TC) concentrations were found in the size fractions with a mass median diameter of 18 to 95 µm, while in the coarser size fractions and in the finest size fraction the TC was lower. In contrast, for many heavy metals and other metals (e.g. Al, Fe, Mn, Ti, Ba, Sr, As, Cu, V) the maximum concentrations were found in the finest size fraction and with increasing size of the dust fractions the concentrations decreased. The distribution of Zn was different. In the four finest size fractions the concentration was nearly constant

Size Dependence of the Filter Dust Composition of a Secondary Copper Smelting Furnace

Abstract -In the copper industry dusts are generated in various processes and separated from the off-gas by filters. Depending on the dust composition different options for processing of the dusts can be taken into account: recycling into the metallurgical process and hydrometallurgical processes or pyrometallurgical processes. The main components in the dust from a secondary copper smelting furnace were Zn and Pb. But there was also some Cu contained in this dust. Air classification of this dust showed that Cu was enriched in the coarse fraction while in the finest fraction Cu was depleted. In contrast, Zn and Pb were enriched in the finest fraction. Thus, air classification could be considered for separation of the filter dust into two fractions: a coarse fraction for recovery of Cu and a fine fraction which is discharged for recovery of Zn

Highly modular protein micropatterning sheds light on the role of clathrin-mediated endocytosis for the quantitative analysis of protein-protein interactions in live cells

Protein micropatterning is a powerful tool for spatial arrangement of transmembrane and intracellular proteins in living cells. The restriction of one interaction partner (the bait, e.g., the receptor) in regular micropatterns within the plasma membrane and the monitoring of the lateral distribution of the bait’s interaction partner (the prey, e.g., the cytosolic downstream molecule) enables the in-depth examination of protein-protein interactions in a live cell context. This study reports on potential pitfalls and difficulties in data interpretation based on the enrichment of clathrin, which is a protein essential for clathrin-mediated receptor endocytosis. Using a highly modular micropatterning approach based on large-area micro-contact printing and streptavidin-biotin-mediated surface functionalization, clathrin was found to form internalization hotspots within the patterned areas, which, potentially, leads to unspecific bait/prey protein co-recruitment. We discuss the consequences of clathrin-coated pit formation on the quantitative analysis of relevant protein-protein interactions, describe controls and strategies to prevent the misinterpretation of data, and show that the use of DNA-based linker systems can lead to the improvement of the technical platform

Linker Engineering of Ligand‐Decorated DNA Origami Nanostructures Affects Biological Activity

News from an old acquaintance: The streptavidin (STV)-biotin binding system is frequently used for the decoration of DNA origami nanostructures (DON) to study biological systems. Here, a surprisingly high dynamic of the STV/DON interaction is reported, which is affected by the structure of the DNA linker system. Analysis of different mono- or bi-dentate linker architectures on DON with a novel high-speed atomic force microscope (HS-AFM) enabling acquisition times as short as 50 ms per frame gave detailed insights into the dynamics of the DON/STV interaction, revealing dwell times in the sub-100 millisecond range. The linker systems are also used to present biotinylated epidermal growth factor on DON to study the activation of the epidermal growth factor receptor signaling cascade in HeLa cells. The studies confirm that cellular activation correlated with the binding properties of linker-specific STV/DON interactions observed by HS-AFM. This work sheds more light on the commonly used STV/DON system and will help to further standardize the use of DNA nanostructures for the study of biological processes

Multi-level suppression of receptor-PI3K-mTORC1 by fatty acid synthase inhibitors is crucial for their efficacy against ovarian cancer cells

Receptor-PI3K-mTORC1 signaling and fatty acid synthase (FASN)-regulated lipid biosynthesis harbor numerous drug targets and are molecularly connected. We hypothesize that unraveling the mechanisms of pathway cross-talk will be useful for designing novel co-targeting strategies for ovarian cancer (OC). The impact of receptor-PI3K-mTORC1 onto FASN is already well-characterized. However, reverse actions–from FASN towards receptor-PI3K-mTORC1–are still elusive. We show that FASN-blockade impairs receptor-PI3K-mTORC1 signaling at multiple levels. Thin-layer chromatography and MALDI-MS/MS reveals that FASN-inhibitors (C75, G28UCM) augment polyunsaturated fatty acids and diminish signaling lipids diacylglycerol (DAG) and phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-trisphosphate (PIP3) in OC cells (SKOV3, OVCAR-3, A2780, HOC-7). Western blotting and micropatterning demonstrate that FASN-blockers impair phosphorylation/expression of EGF-receptor/ERBB/HER and decrease GRB2–EGF-receptor recruitment leading to PI3K-AKT suppression. FASN-inhibitors activate stress response-genes HIF-1α-REDD1 (RTP801/DIG2/DDIT4) and AMPKα causing mTORC1- and S6-repression. We conclude that FASN-inhibitor-mediated blockade of receptor-PI3K-mTORC1 occurs due to a number of distinct but cooperating processes. Moreover, decrease of PI3K-mTORC1 abolishes cross-repression of MEK-ERK causing ERK activation. Consequently, the MEK-inhibitor selumetinib/AZD6244, in contrast to the PI3K/mTOR-inhibitor dactolisib/NVP-BEZ235, increases growth inhibition when given together with a FASN-blocker. We are the first to provide deep insight on how FASN-inhibition blocks ERBB-PI3K-mTORC1 activity at multiple molecular levels. Moreover, our data encourage therapeutic approaches using FASN-antagonists together with MEK-ERK-inhibitors

Illustrating the effect of viscoelastic additives on cavitation and turbulence with X-ray imaging

The effect of viscoelastic additives on the topology and dynamics of the two-phase flow arising within an axisymmetric orifice with a flow path constriction along its main axis has been investigated employing high-flux synchrotron radiation. X-ray Phase Contrast Imaging (XPCI) has been conducted to visualise the cavitating flow of different types of diesel fuel within the orifice. An additised blend containing Quaternary Ammonium Salt (QAS) additives with a concentration of 500 ppm has been comparatively examined against a pure (base) diesel compound. A high-flux, 12 keV X-ray beam has been utilised to obtain time resolved radiographs depicting the vapour extent within the orifice from two views (side and top) with reference to its main axis. Different test cases have been examined for both fuel types and for a range of flow conditions characterised by Reynolds number of 35500 and cavitation numbers (CN) lying in the range 3.0–7.7. It has been established that the behaviour of viscoelastic micelles in the regions of shear flow is not consistent depending on the cavitation regimes encountered. Namely, viscoelastic effects enhance vortical (string) cavitation, whereas hinder cloud cavitation. Furthermore, the use of additised fuel has been demonstrated to suppress the level of turbulence within the orifice

The Use of Agricultural Residues, Wood Briquettes and Logs for Small-Scale Domestic Heating

Large amounts of agricultural residues are produced annually in the UK alone, which presents a significant biomass energy resource. It has limited availability in briquetted form in the UK but is widely used, particularly in Asia. The aim of this work is to assess the emission from briquetted agricultural residues to wood fuel, including commercial wood briquettes, when utilised in a 5 kW domestic heating stove. Other straw-type materials, sugarcane bagasse, Miscanthus, were also investigated. The combustion behaviour depended on the chemical and physical nature of the briquettes. Results indicate that fuel choice is an important consideration for emission reduction. Fuel-N directly correlates to emitted NOx and all the fuels studied had NOx emissions below the EU regulation limit. While agricultural residues can be relatively high in Cl and S, there is evidence of in-situ capture of HCl and SO2 by calcium salts in the fuel ash. Particulate emissions correlate with the volatile matter in the fuel, but also are influenced by the quality/durability of the briquette. The briquettes performed well compared to wood logs, and while there is a fuel-type influence on emissions, it is also clear that briquettes from optimised manufacture can be lower emitting than wood logs