Development of a Transparent Thermal Reflective Thin Film Coating for Accurate Separation of Food-Grade Plastics in Recycling Process via AI-Based Thermal Image Processing

This paper presents the development of a specific thin film coating designed to address the challenge of accurately separating food-grade plastics in the recycling process. The coating, created using a plasma sputtering process, is transparent to the visible spectrum of light while effectively reflecting infrared emissions above 1500 nm. Composed of a safe metal oxide formulation with a proprietary composition, the coating is applied to packaging labels. By employing thermal imaging and a computer vision AI model, the coated labels enable precise differentiation of plastics associated with food packaging in the initial stage of plastic recycling. The proposed system achieved a remarkable 100% accuracy in separating food-grade plastics from other types of plastics. This innovative approach holds great potential for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of plastic recycling processes, ensuring the recovery of food-grade plastics for future use

Enrichment of native plastic associated biofilm communities to enhance polyester degrading activity

Data Availability Statement: All data is available upon reasonable request to the corresponding author. Sequence data has been deposited in the NCBI SRA database and GenBank and is available under the code PRJNA962804.Supporting Information is available online at https://ami-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1462-2920.16466#support-information-section .Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Plastic pollution is an increasing worldwide problem urgently requiring a solution. While recycling rates are increasing globally, only 9% of all plastic waste has been recycled, and with the cost and limited downstream uses of recycled plastic, an alternative is needed. Here, we found that expanded polystyrene (EPS) promoted high levels of bacterial biofilm formation and sought out environmental EPS waste to characterize these native communities. We demonstrated that the EPS attached communities had limited plastic degrading activity. We then performed a long-term enrichment experiment where we placed a robust selection pressure on these communities by limiting carbon availability such that the waste plastic was the only carbon source. Seven of the resulting enriched bacterial communities had increased plastic degrading activity compared to the starting bacterial communities. Pseudomonas stutzeri was predominantly identified in six of the seven enriched communities as the strongest polyester degrader. Sequencing of one isolate of P. stutzeri revealed two putative polyesterases and one putative MHETase. This indicates that waste plastic-associated biofilms are a source for bacteria that have plastic-degrading potential, and that this potential can be unlocked through selective pressure and further in vitro enrichment experiments, resulting in biodegradative communities that are better than nature.Academy of Medical Sciences/the Wellcome Trust/the Government Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy/the British Heart Foundation/Diabetes UK Springboard Award. Grant Number: SBF006/1040; Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council New Investigator Award. Grant Number: BB/V007823/1; European Commission. Grant Number: 887648; Natural Environment Research Council. Grant Number: NE/X010902/1

Highly conductive zinc oxide based transparent conductive oxide films prepared using RF plasma sputtering under reducing atmosphere

© 2020 by the authors. The spectral properties and colour functions of a radio frequency (RF)-based sputtering plasma source was monitored during consecutive sputter deposition of zinc doped indium oxide (IZO) thin films under argon and argon/hydrogen mix. The effect of target exposure to the hydrogen gas on charge density/mobility and spectral transmittance of the deposited films was investigated. We demonstrate that consecutive exposure to the hydrogen gas during the deposition process progressively affects the properties of thin films with a certain degree of continuous improvement in electrical conductivity while demonstrating that reverting to only argon from argon/ hydrogen mix follows a complex pathway, which has not been reported previously in such detail to our knowledge. We then demonstrate that this effect can be used to prepare highly conductive zinc oxide thin films without indium presence and as such eliminating the need for the expensive indium addition. We shall demonstrate that complexity observed in emission spectra can be simply identified by monitoring the colour of the plasma through its colour functions, making this technique a simple real-time monitoring method for the deposition process.Grand Challenge Research Fund (GCRF) SUNRISE program, No. EP/P032591/1

Spectroscopic and Microscopic Characterization of Microbial Biofouling on Aircraft Fuel Tanks

Full text also available at: Europe PMC - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/38319653Avoiding microbial contamination and biofilm formation on the surfaces of aircraft fuel tanks is a major challenge in the aviation industry. The inevitable presence of water in fuel systems and nutrients provided by the fuel makes an ideal environment for bacteria, fungi, and yeast to grow. Understanding how microbes grow on different fuel tank materials is the first step to control biofilm formation in aviation fuel systems. In this study, biofilms of Pseudomonas putida, a model Gram-negative bacterium previously found in aircraft fuel tanks, were characterized on aluminum 7075-T6 surfaces, which is an alloy used by the aviation industry due to favorable properties including high strength and fatigue resistance. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) showed that extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) produced by P. putida were important components of biofilms with a likely role in biofilm stability and adhesion to the surfaces. EDX analysis showed that the proportion of phosphorus with respect to nitrogen is higher in the EPS than in the bacterial cells. Additionally, different morphologies in biofilm formation were observed in the fuel phase compared to the water phase. Micro-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (micro-FTIR) analysis suggested that phosphoryl and carboxyl functional groups are fundamental for the irreversible attachment between the EPS of bacteria and the aluminum surface, by the formation of hydrogen bonds and inner-sphere complexes between the macromolecules and the aluminum surface. Based on the hypothesis that nucleic acids (particularly DNA) are an important component of EPS in P. putida biofilms, the impact of degrading extracellular DNA was tested. Treatment with the enzyme DNase I affected both water and fuel phase biofilms─with the cell structure disrupted in the aqueous phase, but cells remained attached to the aluminum coupons.InnovateUK and Airbus Operations Ltd., within the project “Fuel Architecture and Systems Technology (FAST)”, Project reference 113161 (TS/R008132/1). A.D.M. acknowledges funding from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) DTP scholarship (project reference: 2748843

Morbid risk of schizophrenia amongst relatives of schizophrenia probands: A family-controlled study

Introduction: There is a dearth of data on heritability of schizophrenia in Africa. The few African studies that addressed familial psychiatric morbidity in schizophrenia involved relatively small sample sizes and addressed psychiatric morbidity only in first-degree relatives. The present study sought to improve upon the methodology of previous African studies, and widen the scope to second- and third-degree relatives with a view to enriching the field of genetic epidemiology in Africa. Methods: This study elicited information on the morbid risk of schizophrenia amongst 5259 relatives of schizophrenia probands (n = 138) and 6734 relatives of healthy controls (n = 138) through direct interview of patients, available relatives of patients and controls. Diagnosis of probands was confirmed using Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview. Through a direct interview of 138 patients and their available relatives, a family history approach using the Family Interview for Genetic Studies was utilised to obtain information on the morbid risk for all relatives that could be recalled. The same approach was utilised for the interview of the controls (aged 45 years and above) and their relatives. Morbid risk estimates were calculated using the Weinberg shorter method. Results: Morbid risk for schizophrenia in the first-, second- and third-degree relatives of schizophrenia probands was 10.9% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 10.6–11.2), 4.2% (95% CI = 4.1–4.3) and 3.9% (95% CI = 3.6–4.2), respectively, compared with 2.6% (95% CI = 2.5–2.7), 1.6% (95% CI = 1.5–1.7) and 1.5% (95% CI = 1.4–1.6), respectively, of the healthy control group. Conclusion: The findings support the widely noted impression that schizophrenia significantly aggregates in families of schizophrenia probands more than healthy controls

Hyperaccumulation of lead using Agrostis tenuis

Availability of data and materials: All the data and materials discussed in this paper are owned by the authors.In recent years the quest for a circular economy approach and the upcycling of secondary raw materials have been pushed in the global political agenda. Increased interest has been taken by the recovery of materials from sludges, brines, contaminated waters and other media, such as “mining” of waste. Contaminated soils have an interesting role in this process, and various methodologies have been developed using chemical, bacteriological and pyrometallurgical cleaning procedures. However, these procedures all involve the movement of high volume of materials and the disruption of the industrial landscape; furthermore, they often require the use of hazardous solvents and high energy processes. This work proposes to identify less impactful methods aimed at the recovery of metals from mining areas while preserving the landscape and avoiding environmental impacts such as the increase of CO2 for transport and increase hazard through use of solvents, this takes particular importance in areas of industrial heritage status. In particular, this work focuses on the use of Agrostis tenuis, an autochthonous species in mining areas of the UK, as a “mining tool” for the removal of lead. The selection of both the hyperaccumulator and the metal in this study are derived from the evaluation of the most common contamination in mining areas and the widespread prevalence of this hyperaccumulator and its resilience in highly contaminated abandoned mines. Aside from its presence within the mining areas, making it an autochthonous plant, Agrostis tenuis is selected for its visual morphology. Being a short grass, Agrostis does not change the visual appearance of the mining sites, most of which in the UK have a historic landscape status