Uptake Rate of Ammonia-nitrogen With Sterile Ulva sp. for Water Quality Control of Intensive ShrimpCulture Ponds in Developing Countries

Ammonia-nitrogen uptake by seaweed was modeled based on the concept of ammonia-nitrogen permeation through cell membrane, and the derived model of uptake rate was experimentally verified. In this study, sterile Ulva sp. was employed as seaweed to treat model culture solution, and the distribution equilibrium of the ammonia-nitrogen between the culture solution and cell inside was measured to obtain the equilibrium. For this measurement, the seaweed was pretreated before the uptake runs to inhibit the assimilation by methionine sulfoximine for removal of the assimilation effects on the uptake rate. The parameters of the distribution equilibrium and permeation rate of ammonia-nitrogen were measured. The pretreated seaweed could uptake ammonia-nitrogen and the ammonia-nitrogen permeated through the cell membrane from the culture solution into the cell according to the concentration gradient. The seaweed saturated with ammonia-nitrogen was immersed in the culture solution without ammonia-nitrogen and it could excrete ammonia-nitrogen once taken in. In both cases of the uptake and excretion, the systems attained equilibrium after around 6 hours. The ammonia-nitrogen concentration in the cell increased with the concentration in the culture solution at equilibrium. The flux of ammonia-nitrogen was almost proportional to the concentration difference, defined as that between the ammonia-nitrogen concentration in the cell and the hypothetical concentration of ammonia-nitrogen in the cell which is in equilibrium with the culture solution. The overall permeation coefficient was measured as 9.1 · 10–3 m h–1 for both cases of uptake and excretion, and this relationship was valid when the concentration difference was large enough relative to the flux

Effects of size on the magnetic properties and crystal structures of magnetically frustrated DyMn2O5 nanoparticles

We synthesized magnetically frustrated DyMn2O5 nanoparticles in pores of mesoporous silica, with particle sizes ranging from 7 to 20 nm, and investigated their magnetostructural correlation. We found that the lattice constants of the DyMn2O5 nanoparticles deviated from those of the bulk crystal below ∼12 nm and their crystallographic structures at the unit cell level were distorted. The size dependences of the blocking temperature and coercive field drastically change at ∼12 nm. In addition, the Weiss temperature depends strongly on particle size, and its sign changes at ∼12 nm. It is considered that such features can be realized owing to the distortion caused by the ligand atoms at the surface. The orbital structures of the magnetic sites are easily modified due to the distortion of the ligand ions at the surface, so that the correlation between the crystal structure and magnetic properties can be enhanced. Moreover, magnetization of the nanoparticle results in quasi-superparamagnetic behavior. Monte Carlo calculation of the nanoparticles indicates that such a feature is realized due to the quasi-free spins induced at the surface by magnetic frustration

From nonassociativity to solutions of the KP hierarchy

A recently observed relation between 'weakly nonassociative' algebras A (for which the associator (A,A^2,A) vanishes) and the KP hierarchy (with dependent variable in the middle nucleus A' of A) is recalled. For any such algebra there is a nonassociative hierarchy of ODEs, the solutions of which determine solutions of the KP hierarchy. In a special case, and with A' a matrix algebra, this becomes a matrix Riccati hierarchy which is easily solved. The matrix solution then leads to solutions of the scalar KP hierarchy. We discuss some classes of solutions obtained in this way.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, International Colloquium 'Integrable Systems and Quantum Symmetries', Prague, 15-17 June 200

The clinical utility of Lens culinaris agglutinin-reactive thyroglobulin ratio in serum for distinguishing benign from malignant conditions of the thyroid

ArticleCLINICA CHIMICA ACTA. 379(1-2): 101-104 (2007)journal articl

Porosity dependence of sound propagation in liquid-4He-filled aerogel

Longitudinal sound-wave propagation has been studied in an aerogel-liquid 4He system for various porosities of aerogel. The superfluid transition was identified as the absorption peak, whose magnitude was suppressed by aerogel. The sound velocity was analyzed within a hydrodynamic theory in both normal and superfluid phases. The absorption peak due to phonon-roton interaction around 1 K was not observed even with the most porous aerogel. The low-temperature sound velocity and attenuation show that direct collisions of phonons with aerogel strands play an important role in the acoustic properties. © 2004 MAIK "Nauka/Interperiodica"

Capillary penetration method for measuring wetting properties of carbon ionomer films for proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) applications

In this work, capillary rise experiments were performed to assess the wetting properties of carbon-ionomer (CI) films. The samples were attached to a micro-balance and then immersed into liquid water to (i) measure the mass gain from the liquid uptake and (ii) estimate the (external) contact angle to water (typical value around 140°). The results showed that drying the CI films under low vacuum significantly impacted the CI film wettability. The influence of the ionomer content on the CI films’ wettability was investigated with various ionomer to carbon (I/C) ratios: 0.8, 1.0, 1.2 and 1.4. No significant variation of the contact angle to water extracted from the capillary rise experiment was measured. However, water uptake increased with the I/C ratio suggesting a more hydrophilic behavior. This observation was in good agreement with the measurement from the sessile drop method showing a slight decrease of the contact angle to water: from 155° for an I/C of 0.8 to 135° for I/C = 1.4

A dimension-breaking phenomenon for water waves with weak surface tension

It is well known that the water-wave problem with weak surface tension has small-amplitude line solitary-wave solutions which to leading order are described by the nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation. The present paper contains an existence theory for three-dimensional periodically modulated solitary-wave solutions which have a solitary-wave profile in the direction of propagation and are periodic in the transverse direction; they emanate from the line solitary waves in a dimension-breaking bifurcation. In addition, it is shown that the line solitary waves are linearly unstable to long-wavelength transverse perturbations. The key to these results is a formulation of the water wave problem as an evolutionary system in which the transverse horizontal variable plays the role of time, a careful study of the purely imaginary spectrum of the operator obtained by linearising the evolutionary system at a line solitary wave, and an application of an infinite-dimensional version of the classical Lyapunov centre theorem.Comment: The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00205-015-0941-