Effects of acid rain on competitive releases of Cd, Cu, and Zn from two natural soils and two contaminated soils in hunan, China

Leaching experiments of rebuilt soil columns with two simulated acid rain solutions (pH 4.6– 3.8) were conducted for two natural soils and two artificial contaminated soils from Hunan, southcentralChina, to study effects of acid rain on competitive releases of soil Cd, Cu, and Zn. Distilled water was used in comparison. The results showed that the total releases were Zn>Cu>Cd for the natural soils and Cd>Zn≫Cu for the contaminated soils, which reflected sensitivity of these metals to acid rain. Leached with different acid rain, about 26–76% of external Cd and 11–68% external Zn were released,but more than 99% of external Cu was adsorbed by the soils, and therefore Cu had a different sorption and desosption pattern from Cd and Zn. Metal releases were obviously correlated with releases of TOC in the leachates, witch could be described as an exponential equation.Compared with the natural soils,acid rain not only led to changes in total metal contents, but also in metal fraction distributions in the contaminated soils. More acidifed soils had a lower sorption capaity to metals, mostlt related to soil properties such as pH organic matter, soil particles, adsorbed SO42-, exchangeable AI3+ and H+, and contents of Fe2O3 and AI2O3

Complex toxic effects of Cd2+, Zn2+, and acid rain on growth of kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L)

Complex toxic effects of Cd2+, Zn2+, and acid rain on growth of kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L) were studied in a pot experiment by measurement of fresh weights of the plants, determination of surperoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), and lipid peroxidation (MDA) in the plant organs, and observation of injury symptoms. The experimental results demonstrated that all treatments of Cd2+, Zn2+, and/or acid rain significantly decreased fresh weights of kidney bean and caused toxic effects on growth of the plants, especially higher amounts of Cd2+ and Zn2+ and higher acidity of acid rain. Combination of these three pollutant factors resulted in more serious toxic effects than any single pollutant and than combinations of any two pollutants. SOD, POD, and MDA in the plant organs changed with different pollution levels, but MDA content in the leaves showed the best relationship between the pollution levels and toxic effects

Phylogenetic diversity of Type I polyketide synthase genes from sediments of Ardley Island in Antarctica

National Natural Science Foundation of China [40406029]; China Ocean Mineral Resources Research & Development Association [DYXM-115-02-2-04]The diversity of modular polyketide synthase (PKS) genes in sediments of Ardley Island in Antarctica, was studied by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis. Phylogenetic analysis of 14 amino acid (AA) sequences indicates that the identified ketosynthase (KS) domains were clustered with those from diverse bacterial groups, including Cyanobacteria, gamma-Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, and some unidentified microorganisms from marine sponge, bryozoan and other environmental samples. The obtained KS domains showed 43%-81% similarity at the AA level to reference sequences in GenBank. Six identified KS domains showed diverse sequences of the motif (VQTACSTS) that was used to identify the hybrid PKS/nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) enzyme complex, and formed a new branch. These results reveal a high diversity and novelty of PKS genes in antarctic sediments

Research on Improved Auto-Tuning of a PID Controller Based on Phase Angle Margin

In order to realize fast and efficient tuning of the proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller parameters in thermal power plants, this paper thoroughly analyzes the problems existing in the relay characteristic method based on the phase angle margin auto-tuning method (PM method), and proposes an improved PM auto-tuning method for the most common first order plus dead time (FOPDT) model in practical engineering applications. The improved algorithm proposes the design of the target phase angle margin and the method of plant identification. Then, the optimization algorithm is used to calculate the correction coefficient of the setting formula to obtain the PID controller parameters that minimize the integrated time absolute error (ITAE) index of the control system. Finally, through the auto-tuning experiment on the generalized control model of the main steam temperature system in thermal power plants, it is verified that the improved algorithm is superior to the traditional PM method and Ziegler−Nichols method (Z-N method), and can obtain a fast and stable control performance

Efficient Removal of Heavy Metals from Contaminated Sunflower Straw by an Acid-Assisted Hydrothermal Process

The removal of heavy metals is crucial to the utilization of contaminated biomass resources. In this study, we report an efficient process of hydrothermal conversion (HTC) of sunflower straw (Helianthus annuus L.) to remove heavy metals. The effect of different HTC temperatures and concentrations of HCl additives on heavy metal removal efficiency was investigated. The results revealed that increasing the temperature or concentration of HCl promoted the transfer of heavy metals from hydrochar to liquid products during HTC. The heavy metals removed to the liquid products included up to 99% of Zn and Cd, 94% of Cu, and 87% of Pb after hydrothermal conversion with a temperature of 200 °C and HCl 2%. The species of heavy metals in hydrochars converted from unstable to stable with an increase in temperature from 160 °C to 280 °C. The stable fractions of heavy metals in the acidic condition decreased as the acid concentration increased. This aligns well with the high transfer efficiency of heavy metals from the solid phase to the liquid phase under acidic conditions. The FTIR indicated that the carboxy and hydroxy groups decreased significantly as the temperature increased and the concentration of HCl increased, which promoted the degradation of sunflower straw. A scan electron microscope showed that the deepening of the destruction of the initial microstructure promotes the transfer of heavy metals from hydrochars to liquid phase products. This acid-assisted hydrothermal process is an efficient method to treat biomass containing heavy metals

The Synergistic Activity of Rhamnolipid Combined with Linezolid against Linezolid-Resistant <i>Enterococcus faecium</i>

Enterococci resistance is increasing sharply, which poses a serious threat to public health. Rhamnolipids are a kind of amphiphilic compound used for its bioactivities, while the combination of nontraditional drugs to restore linezolid activity is an attractive strategy to treat infections caused by these pathogens. This study aimed to investigate the activity of linezolid in combination with the rhamnolipids against Enterococcus faecium. Here, we determined that the rhamnolipids could enhance the efficacy of linezolid against enterococci infections by a checkerboard MIC assay, a time–kill assay, a combined disk test, an anti-biofilm assay, molecular simulation dynamics, and mouse infection models. We identified that the combination of rhamnolipids and linezolid restored the linezolid sensitivity. Anti-biofilm experiments show that our new scheme can effectively inhibit biofilm generation. The mouse infection model demonstrated that the combination therapy significantly reduced the bacterial load in the feces, colons, and kidneys following subcutaneous administration. This study showed that rhamnolipids could play a synergistic role with linezolid against Enterococcus. Our combined agents could be appealing candidates for developing new combinatorial agents to restore antibiotic efficacy in the treatment of linezolid-resistant Enterococcus infections

Hysteretic Behavior on Asymmetrical Composite Joints with Concrete-Filled Steel Tube Columns and Unequal High Steel Beams

In order to acquire the hysteretic behavior of the asymmetrical composite joints with concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) columns and unequal high steel beams, 36 full-scale composite joints were designed, and the CFST hoop coefficient (ξ), axial compression ratio (n0), concrete cube compressive strength (fcuk), steel tube strength (fyk), beam, and column section size were taken as the main control parameters. Based on nonlinear constitutive models of concrete and the double broken-line stress-hardening constitutive model of steel, and by introducing the symmetric contact element and multi-point constraint (MPC), reduced-scale composite joints were simulated by ABAQUS software. By comparing with the test curves, the rationality of the modeling method was verified. The influence of various parameters on the seismic performance of the full-scale asymmetrical composite joints was investigated. The results show that with the increasing of fcuk, the peak load (Pmax) and ductility of the specimens gradually increased. With the increasing of n0, the Pmax of the specimens gradually increases firstly and then gradually decreases after reaching a peak point. The composite joints have good energy dissipation capacity and the characteristic of stiffness degradation. The oblique struts force mechanism in the full-scale asymmetrical composite joint domain is proposed. By introducing influence coefficients (ξ1 and ξ2), the expression of shear bearing capacity of composite joints is obtained by statistical regression, which can provide theoretical support for the seismic design of asymmetrical composite joints