Typical lignocellulosic wastes and by-products for biosorption process in water and wastewater treatment: A critical review

Biosorption on lignocellulosic wastes and by-products has been identified as a proper alternative to the existing technologies applied for toxic metal ion and dye removal from wastewater streams. This paper deals with utilization of typical low cost wastes and by-products produced in different food agricultural and agro-industries as biosorbent and reviews the current state of studies on a wide variety of cheap biosorbents in natural and modified forms. The efficiency of each biosorbent has been also discussed with respect to the operating conditions (e.g. temperature, hydraulic residence time, initial metal concentration, biosorbent particle size and its dosage), chemical modification on sorption capacity and preparation methods, as well as thermodynamics and kinetics. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd

b-Initiated processes at the LHC: a reappraisal

Several key processes at the LHC in the standard model and beyond that involve $b$ quarks, such as single-top, Higgs, and weak vector boson associated production, can be described in QCD either in a 4-flavor or 5-flavor scheme. In the former, $b$ quarks appear only in the final state and are typically considered massive. In 5-flavor schemes, calculations include $b$ quarks in the initial state, are simpler and allow the resummation of possibly large initial state logarithms of the type $\log \frac{{\cal Q}^2}{m_b^2}$ into the $b$ parton distribution function (PDF), ${\cal Q}$ being the typical scale of the hard process. In this work we critically reconsider the rationale for using 5-flavor improved schemes at the LHC. Our motivation stems from the observation that the effects of initial state logs are rarely very large in hadron collisions: 4-flavor computations are pertubatively well behaved and a substantial agreement between predictions in the two schemes is found. We identify two distinct reasons that explain this behaviour, i.e., the resummation of the initial state logarithms into the $b$-PDF is relevant only at large Bjorken $x$ and the possibly large ratios ${\cal Q}^2/m_b^2$'s are always accompanied by universal phase space suppression factors. Our study paves the way to using both schemes for the same process so to exploit their complementary advantages for different observables, such as employing a 5-flavor scheme to accurately predict the total cross section at NNLO and the corresponding 4-flavor computation at NLO for fully exclusive studies.Comment: Fixed typo in Eq. (A.10) and few typos in Eq. (C.2) and (C.3

Fish bone foreign body presenting with an acute fulminating retropharyngeal abscess in a resource-challenged center: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>A retropharyngeal abscess is a potentially life-threatening infection in the deep space of the neck, which can compromise the airway. Its management requires highly specialized care, including surgery and intensive care, to reduce mortality. This is the first case of a gas-forming abscess reported from this region, but not the first such report in the literature.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We present a case of a 16-month-old Yoruba baby girl with a gas-forming retropharyngeal abscess secondary to fish bone foreign body with laryngeal spasm that was managed in the recovery room. We highlight specific problems encountered in the management of this case in a resource-challenged center such as ours.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We describe an unusual presentation of a gas-forming organism causing a retropharyngeal abscess in a child. The patient's condition was treated despite the challenges of inadequate resources for its management. We recommend early recognition through adequate evaluation of any oropharyngeal injuries or infection and early referral to the specialist with prompt surgical intervention.</p

Predictors of betel quid chewing behavior and cessation patterns in Taiwan aborigines

BACKGROUND: Betel quid, chewed by about 600 million people worldwide, is one of the most widely used addictive substances. Cessation factors in betel quid chewers are unknown. The present study explores prevalence and the quit rate of betel quid chewing in Taiwan aborigines. Our goal was to delineate potential predictors of chewing cessation. METHODS: A stratified random community-based survey was designed for the entire aborigines communities in Taiwan. A total of 7144 participants were included between June 2003 and May 2004 in this study. Information on sociodemographic characteristics, such as gender, age, obesity, education years, marital status, ethnicity, and habits of betel quid chewing, smoking and drinking was collected by trained interviewers. RESULTS: The prevalence of betel quid chewers was 46.1%. Betel quid chewing was closely associated with obesity (OR = 1.61; 95% CI: 1.40–1.85). Betel quid chewers were most likely to use alcohol and cigarettes together. Quit rate of betel quid chewers was 7.6%. Betel quid chewers who did not drink alcohol were more likely to quit (OR = 1.89; 95% CI: 1.43–2.50). Alcohol use is a significant factor related to cessation of betel quid chewing, but smoking is not. CONCLUSION: Taiwan aborigines have a high prevalence of betel quid chewers and a low quit rate. Alcohol use is strongly association with betel quid chewing. Efforts to reduce habitual alcohol consumption might be of benefit in cessation of betel quid chewing

Reduction of mitomycin C is catalysed by human recombinant NRH:quinone oxidoreductase 2 using reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide as an electron donating co-factor

NRH:Quinone Oxidoreductase 2 (NQO2) has been described as having no enzymatic activity with nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) or NADPH as electron donating cosubstrates. Mitomycin C (MMC) is both a substrate for and a mechanistic inhibitor of the NQO2 homologue NQO1. NRH:quinone oxidoreductase 2 catalysed the reduction of MMC at pH 5.8 with NADH as a co-factor. This reaction results in species that inhibit the NQO2-mediated metabolism of CB1954. In addition, MMC caused an increase in DNA cross-links in a cell line transfected to overexpress NQO2 to an extent comparable to that observed with an isogenic NQO1-expressing cell line. These data indicate that NQO2 may contribute to the metabolism of MMC to cytotoxic species

Acellular Bone Marrow Extracts Significantly Enhance Engraftment Levels of Human Hematopoietic Stem Cells in Mouse Xeno-Transplantation Models

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) derived from cord blood (CB), bone marrow (BM), or mobilized peripheral blood (PBSC) can differentiate into multiple lineages such as lymphoid, myeloid, erythroid cells and platelets. The local microenvironment is critical to the differentiation of HSCs and to the preservation of their phenotype in vivo. This microenvironment comprises a physical support supplied by the organ matrix as well as tissue specific cytokines, chemokines and growth factors. We investigated the effects of acellular bovine bone marrow extracts (BME) on HSC in vitro and in vivo. We observed a significant increase in the number of myeloid and erythroid colonies in CB mononuclear cells (MNC) or CB CD34+ cells cultured in methylcellulose media supplemented with BME. Similarly, in xeno-transplantation experiments, pretreatment with BME during ex-vivo culture of HSCs induced a significant increase in HSC engraftment in vivo. Indeed, we observed both an increase in the number of differentiated myeloid, lymphoid and erythroid cells and an acceleration of engraftment. These results were obtained using CB MNCs, BM MNCs or CD34+ cells, transplanted in immuno-compromised mice (NOD/SCID or NSG). These findings establish the basis for exploring the use of BME in the expansion of CB HSC prior to HSC Transplantation. This study stresses the importance of the mechanical structure and soluble mediators present in the surrounding niche for the proper activity and differentiation of stem cells

Search for Charged Higgs Bosons in e+e- Collisions at \sqrt{s} = 189 GeV

A search for pair-produced charged Higgs bosons is performed with the L3 detector at LEP using data collected at a centre-of-mass energy of 188.6 GeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 176.4 pb^-1. Higgs decays into a charm and a strange quark or into a tau lepton and its associated neutrino are considered. The observed events are consistent with the expectations from Standard Model background processes. A lower limit of 65.5 GeV on the charged Higgs mass is derived at 95 % confidence level, independent of the decay branching ratio Br(H^{+/-} -> tau nu)