An exploration of the sub-register of chemical engineering research papers published in English

The increased pressures for high-volume, high-impact publications in English language and the high rejection rates of submitted manuscripts for publications present an often unsurpassable obstacle for (early career) researchers. At the same time, register variation of peer-reviewed journals—that can contribute to whether a paper is accepted for publication—has received little attention. This paper redresses this gap, by investigating the register (especially discourse moves and lexical choices) in 60 published, original-research articles on wastewater treatment published in four Chemical Engineering journals, with impact factor (IF) above 2. Our survey shows that chemical engineering research publications tend to comply with a set of requirements: multidisciplinarity, brevity, co-authorship, focus on the description of practical results (rather than methods), and awareness of non-specialised audiences. Lexical choices were analysed through frequency tables, phrase nets and word trees produced by data visualisation software (ManyEyes). It was found that less discipline-specific vocabulary is used in higher IF journals and this is interpreted within the current context of manuscript publication and consumption. This study concludes that data visualisation can provide an efficient and effective tool for prospective authors that wish to gauge telling details of the sub-register of a specific journal

An exploration of the sub-register of chemical engineering research papers published in english

The combination of increased pressures for high-volume, high-impact publications in English language with the high rejection rates of submitted manuscripts for publications presents an often unsurpassable obstacle for (early career) researchers. At the same, the register requirements of peer-reviewed journals -that can contribute to whether a paper is accepted for publication- has received little attention. This paper redresses this gap, by investigating the linguistic choices in 60 published manuscripts in four journals, with impact factor (IF) above 2; all 4 journals, publish original research papers in the field of chemical engineering science and specifically focus on wastewater treatment. Our survey shows that chemical engineering research publications tend to comply to a set of unwritten requirements: multidisciplinarity, brevity, co-authorship, focus on the description of practical results (rather than methods), and awareness of non-specialised audiences. It is found that less discipline-specific vocabulary was used in higher IF journals and this is interpreted within the current context of manuscript publication and consumption. Also, a complex relationship between the advertised scope of each journal and the actual published papers exists, indicating that guide for authors and aims and objective published by the journal's editorial office should be critically evaluated

Testing the Waste Based Biorefinery Concept: Pilot Scale Cultivation of Microalgal Species on Spent Anaerobic Digestate Fluids

PurposeA waste based biorefinery approach has been tested.MethodsThis has been investigated by culturing in a 800 L photobioreactor two autotrophic microalgae namely Nannochloropsis oceanica and Scenedesmus quadricauda utilising filtered spent anaerobic digestate fluids of N:P ratio 14.22 as substrate.ResultsSignificant rates of bioremediation simultaneously with biomass and associated end product formation were achieved. Nitrogen and phosphorus of waste based media was decreased up to 90%. The biomass biochemical analysis of the microalgae when grown on the waste based formulated media demonstrated the comparable content of lipids and proteins with the species grown on f/2 media.ConclusionsTheoretical biomethane potential generation, should the algal cultures be placed in an anaerobic digester, was calculated at 0.58 L CH4 g−1 VS for N. oceanica and 0.48 L CH4 g−1 VS for S. quadricauda showing comparable results with other studies of different source of biomass

EFFECT OF AN ACUTE ORAL PROTEIN LOAD ON MICROALBUMINURIA IN UNINEPHRECTOMIZED PATIENTS IN RELATION TO THE TIME SINCE NEPHRECTOMY

To evaluate the effect of an acute oral protein lend (OPL) on urinary albumin excretion (UAE) in uninephrectomized subjects with a negative Albustix test, in relation to the time since nephrectomy. the UAE was determined by a double-antibody I-125 radioimmunoassay in 3-hour urine collections before and after 150 g OPL under conditions of moderate physical activity in 18 subjects who underwent unilateral nephrectomy more than 10 years (346.5+/-178.60 months) before evaluation and had a mean basal creatinine clearance (C-Cr) of 45.3+/-14 ml/min (group 1), in 21 subjects who under went unilateral nephrectomy less than 10 years (31.5+/-28 months) before evaluation and had a mean basal C-Cr of 76.0+/-22 ml/min (group 2), and in 16 normal volunteers (controls) with a mean basal C-Cr of 103.1+/-12 ml/min. The UAE was higher in group 1 as compared with either group 2 or controls at both basal state (90.8+/-65, 19.6+/-17, and 11.0+/-5 mu g/min/100 C-Cr for groups 1 and 2 and controls, respectively; p<0.001) and after OPL (92.0+/-65, 43.6+/-24, and 12.0+/-5 mu/min/100 C-Cr for groups 1 and 2 and controls, respectively; p<0.001). However, the increase in UAE following OPL was significant (p<0.001) only in group 2 patients. In all patients, the basal UAE was negatively correlated with basal C-Cr (r=0.63; p<0.001) and positively correlated with the time since nephrectomy (r=0.73; p<0.001) and with both systolic (r=0.57; p<0.001) and diastolic blood pressures (r=0.69; p<0.001). Ca calculated using 3-hour urine collections increased more in controls (11.2+/-44.2%) than in patient groups 1 (1.6+/-0.89) and 3 (7.7+/-3.7%; p<0.001). Basal C-Cr calculated using 24-hour urine collections the day before the test was negatively correlated with the time since nephrectomy in group 1 (r=-0.69; p<0.001) and positively correlated with the time since nephrectomy in group 2 (r=0.89; p<0.001). Multiple regression analysis revealed that the relationship between C-Cr and duration of uninephric state was independent of age or systolic and diastolic blood pressures in both patient groups. These results suggest that UAE increase significantly after an OPL in subjects who have been nephrectomized less than 10 years before the study and have basal C-Cr values higher than 50% of normal. They also suggest that the risk of developing renal insufficiency increases with time in subjects with a solitary kidney for more than 10 years; this increase in risk seems to follow a progressive compensatory increase in glomerular filtration rate of the remnant kidney during the early years following uninephrectomy