Enhanced toluene removal using granular activated carbon and a yeast strain candida tropicalis in bubble-column bioreactors

The yeast strain Candida tropicalis was used for the biodegradation of gaseous toluene. Toluene was effectively treated by a liquid culture of C. tropicalis in abubble-column bioreactor, and the tolueneremoval efficiency increased with decreasing gas flow rate. However, toluene mass transfer from the gas-to-liquid phase was a major limitation for the uptake of toluene by C. tropicalis. The tolueneremoval efficiency was enhanced when granularactivatedcarbon (GAC) was added as a fluidized material. The GAC fluidized bioreactor demonstrated tolueneremoval efficiencies ranging from 50 to 82% when the inlet toluene loading was varied between 13.1 and 26.9 g/m3/h. The yield value of C. tropicalis ranged from 0.11 to 0.21 g-biomass/g-toluene, which was substantially lower than yield values for bacteria reported in the literature. The maximum elimination capacity determined in the GAC fluidized bioreactor was 172 g/m3/h at atoluene loading of 291 g/m3/h. Transient loading experiments revealed that approximately 50% of the toluene introduced was initially adsorbed onto the GAC during an increased loading period, and then slowly desorbed and became available to the yeast culture. Hence, the fluidized GAC mediated in improving the gas-to-liquid mass transfer of toluene, resulting in a high tolueneremoval capacity. Consequently, the GAC bubble-column bioreactor using the culture of C. tropicalis can be successfully applied for the removal of gaseous toluene

Numerical simulation of super-square patterns in Faraday waves

We report the first simulations of the Faraday instability using the full three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations in domains much larger than the characteristic wavelength of the pattern. We use a massively parallel code based on a hybrid Front-Tracking/Level-set algorithm for Lagrangian tracking of arbitrarily deformable phase interfaces. Simulations performed in rectangular and cylindrical domains yield complex patterns. In particular, a superlattice-like pattern similar to those of [Douady & Fauve, Europhys. Lett. 6, 221-226 (1988); Douady, J. Fluid Mech. 221, 383-409 (1990)] is observed. The pattern consists of the superposition of two square superlattices. We conjecture that such patterns are widespread if the square container is large compared to the critical wavelength. In the cylinder, pentagonal cells near the outer wall allow a square-wave pattern to be accommodated in the center

Sigma Model BPS Lumps on Torus

We study doubly periodic Bogomol'nyi-Prasad-Sommerfield (BPS) lumps in supersymmetric CP^{N-1} non-linear sigma models on a torus T^2. Following the philosophy of the Harrington-Shepard construction of calorons in Yang-Mills theory, we obtain the n-lump solutions on compact spaces by suitably arranging the n-lumps on R^2 at equal intervals. We examine the modular invariance of the solutions and find that there are no modular invariant solutions for n=1,2 in this construction.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, published versio

Vertical variation of optical properties of mixed Asian dust/pollution plumes according to pathway of air mass transport over East Asia

© Author(s) 2015. This is an Open Access article made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/We use five years (2009-2013) of multiwavelength Raman lidar measurements at Gwangju, South Korea (35.10° N, 126.53° E) for the identification of changes of optical properties of East Asian dust depending on its transport path over China. Profiles of backscatter and extinction coefficients, lidar ratios, and backscatter-related Ångström exponents (wavelength pair 355/532 nm) were measured at Gwangju. Linear particle depolarization ratios were used to identify East Asian dust layers. We used backward trajectory modeling to identify the pathway and the vertical position of dust-laden air masses over China during long-range transport. Most cases of Asian dust events can be described by the emission of dust in desert areas and subsequent transport over highly polluted regions of China. The Asian dust plumes could be categorized into two classes according to the height above ground at which these plumes were transported: (case I) the dust layers passed over China at high altitude levels (> 3 km) until arrival over Gwangju, and (case II) the Asian dust layers were transported near the surface and within the lower troposphere (< 3 km) over industrialized areas before they arrived over Gwangju. We find that the optical characteristics of these mixed Asian dust layers over Gwangju differ depending on their vertical position above ground over China and the change of height above ground during transport. The mean linear particle depolarization ratio was 0.21 ± 0.06 (at 532 nm), the mean lidar ratios were 52 ± 7 sr at 355 nm and 53 ± 8 sr at 532 nm, and the mean Ångström exponent was 0.74 ± 0.31 for case I. In contrast, plumes transported at lower altitudes (case II) showed low depolarization ratios (0.13 ± 0.04 at 532 nm), and higher lidar ratio (63 ± 9 sr at 355 nm and 62 ± 8 sr at 532 nm) and Ångström exponents (0.98 ± 0.51). These numbers show that the optical characteristics of mixed Asian plumes are more similar to optical characteristics of urban pollution. We find a decrease of the linear depolarization ratio of the mixed dust/pollution plume depending on transport time if the pollution layer traveled over China at low heights, i.e., below approximately 3 km above ground. In contrast, we do not find such a trend if the dust plumes traveled at heights above 3 km over China. We need a longer time series of lidar measurements in order to determine in a quantitative way the change of optical properties of dust with transport time.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

PRESENCE AND PREVALENCE OF BD (BATRACHOCHYTRIUM DENDROBATIDIS) IN CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIAN WOODLAND VERNAL POOLS

Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), a virulent chytrid fungus responsible for dramatic amphibian declines, has been detected in the northwestern and southeastern regions of Pennsylvania. However, little environmental Bd testing has been performed in central Pennsylvania, particularly in the unique and speciose habitats of woodland vernal pools. Our study included sampling in four vernal pools over a period of three months during amphibian breeding periods. Skin swabs were taken from three caudate and two anuran species, during the course of late winter and spring migrations (n = 143). Low Bd zoospore equivalent loads were detected in only a few individuals, in three of the five species but in all four vernal pools sampled. No significant trends were seen between zoospore loads and ambient temperature or migration timing across the species sampled