Chromium, molybdenum, vanadium, and fluoride sorption from steelwork slag eluates by different mineral additives

Today, the environmental behavior of steelwork slags is very important for their application. When slags are used as building materials, they can interact with water and soil, with the possibility of leaching of harmful components, e.g., metals such as vanadium or anions such as fluoride. The leachable concentrations of various environmentally relevant parameters have to be below defined limit values, which are given by environmental authorities. In this study, different mineral additives have been investigated for their suitability to reduce chromium, molybdenum, vanadium, and fluoride concentrations in slag eluates, as a basis for planned investigations of the long-term leaching behavior of slag/additive mixtures. Seven mineral additives including iron oxide hydroxide, sludge from aluminum production, triple superphosphate, two water work sludges I and II, zeolite powder, and zeolite granules were tested for their efficiency to sorb trace elements and fluoride from four slag eluates comprising two basic oxygen furnace slags and two electric arc furnace slags. The limit values according to the German Alternative Construction Material Ordinance were used to verify which additives were able to minimize concentrations of trace elements and fluoride in slags eluates. Due to high eluate concentrations, the sludge from aluminum production and the triple superphosphate could be excluded from further investigations. The efficiency of the other additives follows the trend iron oxide hydroxide > water work sludges > zeolites. Particularly, the iron oxide hydroxide and the water work sludge I seem to be appropriate to enhance possible applications of slags with respect to the German regulation

A Complex Network of Sigma Factors and sRNA StsR Regulates Stress Responses in R. sphaeroides

Adaptation of bacteria to a changing environment is often accompanied by remodeling of the transcriptome. In the facultative phototroph Rhodobacter sphaeroides the alternative sigma factors RpoE, RpoHI and RpoHII play an important role in a variety of stress responses, including heat, oxidative stress and nutrient limitation. Photooxidative stress caused by the simultaneous presence of chlorophylls, light and oxygen is a special challenge for phototrophic organisms. Like alternative sigma factors, several non-coding sRNAs have important roles in the defense against photooxidative stress. RNAseq-based transcriptome data pointed to an influence of the stationary phase-induced StsR sRNA on levels of mRNAs and sRNAs with a role in the photooxidative stress response. Furthermore, StsR also affects expression of photosynthesis genes and of genes for regulators of photosynthesis genes. In vivo and in vitro interaction studies revealed that StsR, that is under control of the RpoHI and RpoHII sigma factors, targets rpoE mRNA and affects its abundance by altering its stability. RpoE regulates expression of the rpoHII gene and, consequently, expression of stsR. These data provide new insights into a complex regulatory network of protein regulators and sRNAs involved in defense against photooxidative stress and the regulation of photosynthesis genes

An integrated resource-efficient microfluidic device for parallelised studies of immobilised chiral catalysts in continuous flow via miniaturized LC/MS-analysis

A highly integrated microfluidic device is presented for the parallelised study of stereoselective heterogeneous catalytic processes. For the first time, multiple packed-bed mu-flow reactors are combined with a chiral separation unit on a chip that is seamlessly connected to mass spectrometry. By developing an automated fluidic setup, this device allows the performance of different catalysts to be studied in a single run, using only small amounts of resources. In this way, fully automated quasi-simultaneous testing of 2-packed bed reactors for enantioselectivity and conversion is possible, with a significant reduction in solvent and substrate consumption compared to classical tube reactor HPLC-MS testing

Benzimidazoles as Potent and Orally Active mGlu5 Receptor Antagonists with an Improved PK Profile

[Image: see text] A focused chemical optimization effort of compound 1 based on metabolite elucidation is described, resulting in 15i, a highly potent and selective mGlu5 receptor antagonist with an improved pharmacokinetic profile compared to 1. Characterization of 15iin vivo in the fear-potentiated startle (FPS) paradigm revealed a robust reduction of conditioned fear behavior. This effect nicely correlates with the rat brain pharmacokinetics