Abwasserreinigung und Wasserkreislaufführung in der Papierindustrie - Weiterentwicklung deutscher Techniken für den chinesischen Markt

Aufgrund der Rohstoffzusammensetzung zur Zellstoffherstellung und veralteten Fertigungstechniken ist in China die Papierindustrie eine typische Branche mit hoher Umweltbelastung und niedrigem Wasserwiederverwendungsgrad. Im Jahr 2009 betrug der spezifische Frischwasserbedarf in China bei der Herstellung von Papier 55,1 m3/t und der Wasserwiederverwendungsgrad nur 57,0 %. Im Vergleich dazu gelang es in Deutschland innerhalb der letzten 30 Jahre durch Mehrfachnutzung des Prozesswassers den durchschnittlichen spezifischen Frischwasserbedarf auf 14 m3/t Papier zu reduzieren. Der Wasserwiederverwendungsgrad bei der Papierherstellung betrug in Deutschland im Jahr 2000 ca. 98 %. Im Jahr 2008 wurden von der Zentralregierung in China die Einleitungsgrenzwerte von Abwässern aus der Zellstoff- und Papierproduktion verschärft. Seitdem muss direkt in die Vorflut eingeleitetes Abwasser einen Grenzwert von 90 mg/L CSB unterschreiten, sodass die meisten Zellstoffhersteller in China die vorhandenen Kläranlagen auf den neuesten Stand umrüsten müssen. Aufgrund der oben genannten Hintergründe soll in dieser Arbeit ein optimiertes und effizientes Behandlungsverfahren bzw. eine Verfahrenskombination zur Papierabwasserbehandlung mit Hilfe moderner deutscher Abwasserbehandlungstechnologien in China entwickelt werden. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurde eine halbtechnische Verfahrenskombination bestehend aus den Verfahrensschritten Mikro-Elektrolyse Verfahren (MEV) - Hochlastbelebung - Biofilter und UASB-Reaktor - Biofilter untersucht. Bei der CSB-Eingangskonzentration des Abwassers von ca. 1.000-2.300 mg/L konnte mit keiner der Verfahrensketten die staatlich geforderte Ablaufkonzentration von CSB < 90 mg/L [GB 3544-2008] eingehalten werden. Die typischen Ablaufkonzentrationen betrugen 140 -180 mg/L. Mit der Verfahrenskombination (MEV - UASB-Reaktor - Hochlastbelebung - Biofilter) konnten im Labormaßstab CSBAblaufkonzentrationen von ca. 100 mg CSB/L erreicht und somit die regional geforderte CSB-Ablaufkonzentration von 120 mg/L [DB37/336-2003] eingehalten werden. Die staatlich geforderte CSB-Ablaufkonzentration von 90 mg/L [GB 3544-2008] konnte nicht erreicht werden. Es ist jedoch zu erwarten, dass mit einer betrieblichen Optimierung die vorgegebenen Ablaufkonzentrationen eingehalten werden können. Das Abwasser bei der Zellstoff- und Papierherstellung enthält viele schwer biologisch abbaubare organische Verbindungen, wie z.B. Lignine, Cellulose und Hemicellulose. Die biologische Abbaubarkeit des Papierabwassers beeinflusst die Effizienz der Abwasserbehandlung und die Wirtschaftlichkeit im besonderen Maße. Die biologische Abbaubarkeit des Papierabwassers konnte durch MEV und UASB-Reaktor verbessert werden. Die Versuche im Labormaßstab sowie im halbtechnischen Maßstab zeigten, dass mit dem Mikro-Elektrolyse- Verfahren (MEV) das Verhältnis von BSB5 zu CSB des Papierabwassers durchschnittlich von 0,13 auf 0,28 (Labormaßstab) und von 0,29 auf 0,36 (halbtechnischer Maßstab) erhöht werden konnte. Mit dem UASB-Reaktor (halbtechnischer Maßstab) konnte das Verhältnis BSB5/CSB von 0,36 auf 0,45 gesteigert werden. Die Untersuchung der Molekulargewichtsverteilungen mittels Gel-Filtration-Chromatographie-Verfahren (GFC-Verfahren) zeigte, dass nach der Elektrolysereaktion große organische Moleküle (> 5.000 Dalton (g/mol)) im Kurzfassung III Abwasser in kleine Moleküle (2.500-4.000 g/mol) gespalten und mit dem UASB-Reaktor große organische Moleküle (> 5.500 Dalton (g/mol)) in kleine Moleküle (2.500-3.500 g/mol) umgewandelt wurden. Die Anzahl der kleinen Moleküle stieg nach dem UASB-Reaktor deutlich an. Die oben genannte Verfahrenskombination (MEV - UASB-Reaktor - Hochlastbelebung - Biofilter) wurde verfahrenstechnisch beispielhaft für 12.000 m3 Abwasser/d ausgelegt. Es ist vorgesehen, die im Rahmen dieser Untersuchung ausgearbeiteten Verfahrenskombinationen und Bemessungsergebnisse auf weiteren Papierfabriken der Shandong Provinz bzw. in der gesamten V.R. China hinsichtlich ihrer Anwendbarkeit zu überprüfen und ggf. umzusetzen

Using Shipping Containers to Provide Temporary Housing in Post-disaster Recovery: Social Case Studies

AbstractHousing that makes use of the ubiquitous general purpose shipping container is becoming more commonly seen as a useful way of reusing the empty vessels as valuable accommodation. In particular, the application of shipping container temporary housing is suited to post-disaster situations, design examples of which can be found in the literature. However, ensuring the success of implementing such projects in a post-disaster setting requires investigation into the social considerations of temporary housing. This research takes a qualitative approach, focusing particularly on case studies of temporary housing experiences following the Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Christchurch Earthquake in 2011 and a field study of 2009 Black Saturday bushfire-affected communities in Victoria, Australia. Key social factors found to be significant to the success of shipping container temporary housing projects relate to flexibility in ownership, reuse and siting arrangement, in addition to robust pre-disaster planning by authorities, taking into account the varying characteristics of different types of disasters

Life cycle assessment of kerbside waste material for an open-looped and closed-loop production– towards circular economy designs

Urbanization growth has increased the generation of municipal solid waste (MSW) and has the potential for recycling and reuse. However, it is frequently limited to a linear lifecycle mode which end up in landfills. A novel attributional lifecycle inventory model for lifecycle assessment based on value retention process (VRP) model of circular economy was developed to quantify the lifecycle inventory and measure the environmental impacts of multiple lifecycle stages, from in-community separation to the end-of-use/life stage and subsequent lifecycles. This investigation focused on assessing the environmental impacts of two distinct in-community waste glass separation methods - separate kerbside glass recycling bin (SKGRB) and mixed kerbside recycling bin (MKRB) - in combination with two recycling approaches - open-loop (asphalt) and closed-loop (glass container). The goal of the study was to make a comparative evaluation of the environmental impacts of these methods. Results showed that the SKGRB method had better environmental performance (40–60% reduction compared to the MKRB method) for both materials. Closed-loop recycling of glass container production had higher environmental impacts due to higher energy consumption in production in one lifecycle, while the open-loop recycling method of asphalt had higher environmental impacts despite fewer circulations, due to higher production volume in 21 years. The results of the sensitivity/uncertainty analysis showed that environmental impacts decreased as the allocation coefficient decreased, reaching stability when the coefficient reached the waste materials percentage in the new product’s mixed design

A fast and accurate method to predict reliability of project completion time

To meet the target completion time of a construction project is one of the most important performance indi­cators of project management. This paper proposes a fast and accurate method for evaluating the reliability of project completion time in large construction projects, using reliability theory. The proposed method is developed to overcome the limitations of existing methods, including the inaccuracy of the program evaluation and review technique and the long computational time of the narrow reliability bounds method. The proposed method is established in three main parts: (i) calculating the statistics of paths duration in the network; (ii) truncating insignificant paths of the network; and (iii) proposing an innovative solution to accurate estimate for reliability of project completion time. The effectiveness of the proposed method is evaluated using an example project. It is found that the results of the proposed method on the reliability of completion time are accurate. It is also found that the proposed method significantly reduces the number of analysed network paths and the computational effort. The method proposed here can serve as a fast and accurate tool for project managers and project planners in project planning, re-planning, and project control phases. First published online: 01 Jul 201

A Network Pharmacology Approach to Explore the Pharmacological Mechanism of Xiaoyao Powder on Anovulatory Infertility

Aim. To explore the pharmacological mechanism of Xiaoyao powder (XYP) on anovulatory infertility by a network pharmacology approach. Method. Collect XYP’s active compounds by traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) databases, and input them into PharmMapper to get their targets. Then note these targets by Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and filter out targets that can be noted by human signal pathway. Get the information of modern pharmacology of active compounds and recipe’s traditional effects through databases. Acquire infertility targets by Therapeutic Target Database (TTD). Collect the interactions of all the targets and other human proteins via String and INACT. Put all the targets into the Database for Annotation, Visualization, and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) to do GO enrichment analysis. Finally, draw the network by Cytoscape by the information above. Result. Six network pictures and two GO enrichment analysis pictures are visualized. Conclusion. According to this network pharmacology approach some signal pathways of XYP acting on infertility are found for the first time. Some biological processes can also be identified as XYP’s effects on anovulatory infertility. We believe that evaluating the efficacy of TCM recipes and uncovering the pharmacological mechanism on a systematic level will be a significant method for future studies

Effect of potassium simplex optimization medium (KSOM) and embryo screening on the production of human lactoferrin transgenic cloned dairy goats

In this study, we produced cloned transgenic dairy goat based on dairy goat ear skin fibroblast as donor cells for nuclear transfer (NT), which were modified by human lactoferrin (hLF) gene. The developmental competence of NT embryos was compared with either between different embryo culture medium, potassium simplex optimization medium (KSOM) and tissue culture medium (TCM 199), or different classification of NT embryos (48 h after fusion). First we cultured NT embryos to cleavage stage (48 h after fusion) by TCM 199 supplemented with 1 mg/ml bovine serum albumin BSA and KSOM, then used TCM 199 supplemented with 10% FBS to culture them to blastula stage. The results show that the NT embryos in KSOM (19.5%) were superior to TCM 199 (10.6%) in blastulation. In the second experiment, we found that the growth rate of NT embryos (48 h after fusion) was different, then we divided them into four groups: 2-cell, 3- to 4-cell, 5- to 8-cell and &gt;8-cell in stereo microscope and cultured them in vitro respectively. The results show day-2 embryos at 3-4cell and 5-8cell stage (31.9 and 28.2%, P &lt; 0.05) had higher blastocyst formation rates than those at both 2-cell (9.1%) and &gt;8-cell (8.3%) stage, and finally three healthy cloned transgenic goat were successfully produced using 3-8 cell embryos at Day-2 (82%). Using Hoechst 33342 staining, we also found that the &gt;8 cells embryos at Day- 2 demonstrated higher frequency of fragmentation, which may be the one cause of the low blastocyst formation rate. This study therefore demonstrates that KSOM medium could be selected as the early embryo culture medium, and 3-8 cell embryos at day-2 (48 h after fusion) may be the suitable embryos for transplantation, which could reduce the nuclei fragmentation and result in good quality blastocysts that may also enhance the efficiency of transgenic cloned dairy goats production, as well as decrease the economic loss due to embryonic mortality when embryos are transferred to synchronized recipients.Key words: Nuclear transfer, KSOM, transgenic, human lactoferrin, dairy goat

KASP-IEva: an intelligent typing evaluation model for KASP primers

KASP marker technology has been used in molecular marker-assisted breeding because of its high efficiency and flexibility, and an intelligent evaluation model of KASP marker primer typing results is essential to improve the efficiency of marker development on a large scale. To this end, this paper proposes a gene population delineation method based on NTC identification module and data distribution judgment module to improve the accuracy of K-Means clustering, and introduces a decision tree to construct the KASP-IEva primer typing evaluation model. The model firstly designs the NTC identification module and data distribution judgment module to extract four types of data, grouping and categorizing to achieve the improvement of the distinguishability of amplification product signals; secondly, the K-Means algorithm is used to aggregate and classify the data, to visualize the five aggregated clusters and to obtain the morphology location eigenvalues; lastly, the evaluation criteria for the typing effect level are constructed, and the logical decision tree is used to make conditional discrimination on the eigenvalues in order to realize the score prediction. The performance of the model was tested by the KASP marker typing test results of 2519 groups of cotton varieties, and the following conclusions were obtained: the model is able to visualize the aggregation and classification effects of the amplification products of NTC, pure genotypes, heterozygous genotypes, and untyped genotypes, enabling rapid and accurate KASP marker typing evaluation. Comparing and analyzing the model evaluation results with the expert evaluation results, the average accuracy rate of the four grades evaluated by the model was 87%, and the overall evaluation results showed an uneven distribution of the grades with significant differential characteristics. When evaluating 2519 KASP fractal maps, the expert evaluation consumes 15 hours, and the model evaluation only uses 8min27.45s, which makes the model intelligent evaluation significantly better than the expert evaluation from the perspective of time. The establishment of the model will further enhance the application of KASP markers in molecular marker-assisted breeding and provide technical support for the large-scale screening and identification of excellent genotypes

Müller Cell Regulated Microglial Activation and Migration in Rats With N-Methyl-N-Nitrosourea-Induced Retinal Degeneration

During the pathogenesis of retinitis pigmentosa (RP), the roles of retinal microglial cells after activation have not been fully elucidated. Herein, experimental RP was induced in Sprague Dawley rats by intraperitoneal injection of N-methyl-N-nitrosourea (MNU) at 50 mg/kg, and the effects of MNU on the retinas were evaluated, respectively, by retinal histology and electroretinography recordings at serial time points. Time-dependent and gradual loss of photoreceptor cells, disrupted arrangement of the outer nuclear layer (ONL), and significant reductions in both a-wave and b-wave amplitudes were observed. Morphology changes were observed in retinal microglial cells; meanwhile, with time, the number of Iba1-positive microglia and their infiltration into the ONL gradually increased. Furthermore, physical interaction of microglial-Müller cell processes following microglial activation was observed after MNU injection. In addition, Müller cells increased CX3CL1 secretion, enhanced microglial cell migration, and upregulated the CX3CR1 expression of the latter. Our observations implied that, during the pathogenesis of RP by MNU, microglial cells exhibit a prominent morphology change and Müller cells can induce activated microglia infiltration by increasing secretion of the chemotaxis factor, CX3CL1, and promoting the migration of retinal microglial cells. This novel finding highlights a potential therapeutic target aimed at regulating the microglial response