The Role of Solvent Mixture, Acetic Acid and Water in the Formation of CA Membrane for CO2/N2 Separation

The improvement of Carbon dioxide (CO2) separation efficiency from flue gases to reduce the total energy cost of sequestration technologies in coal-fired power plants has been identified as a high-priority research area. In the past three decades, membranes have attracted the attention of chemists and engineers due to their unique separation principles (i.e., selective transport and efficient separation compared to other unit operations). In this study, the formation of cellulose acetate (CA) membrane for CO2/nitrogen (N2) separation was investigated by wet phase inversion. In order to modify the CA membrane structure, different concentration ratio of solvent mixture (acetic acid:water), acetic acid and water were studied. The CA membranes were analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The separation results supported by the characterization, where the best formulate membrane with solvent mixture ratio of 70:30 (acetic acid:water), acetic acid concentration of 63 wt% and water concentration of 27 wt% had high CO2 permeance of 400.92 GPU and slightly better CO2/N2 separation performance at 32.92 as compared to others literature

Sanguinicola maritimus n. sp (Digenea : Sanguinicolidae) from Labridae (Teleostei : Perciformes) of southern Australian waters

A new species of Sanguinicola Plehn, 1905 is described from the marine teleosts Notolabrus parilus (Richardson) and N. tetricus (Richardson) (Perciformes: Labridae) from Western Australian and Tasmanian waters. This host distribution is strikingly anomalous; however, the present material fulfils the morphological criteria of Sanguinicola. S. maritimus n. sp. differs from previously described species in having the combination of a body 1,432-1,701 mu m long, the oesophagus 18.3-21.7% of the body length, the testis occupying 42.8-52.3% of the body length, an oviducal seminal receptacle and Mehlis' gland present, ovoid eggs, and vitelline follicles that extend anteriorly past the nerve commissure, laterally past the lateral nerve chords and posteriorly to the anterior margin of the cirrus-sac. S. maritimus also lacks a protrusible anterior proboscis. It also differs in the combination of host and geographical location, being the first Sanguinicola species from a marine teleost and the first from Australian waters

Essential Roles for GPI-anchored Proteins in African Trypanosomes Revealed Using Mutants Deficient in GPI8

The survival of Trypanosoma brucei, the causative agent of Sleeping Sickness and Nagana, is facilitated by the expression of a dense surface coat of glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored proteins in both its mammalian and tsetse fly hosts. We have characterized T. brucei GPI8, the gene encoding the catalytic subunit of the GPI:protein transamidase complex that adds preformed GPI anchors onto nascent polypeptides. Deletion of GPI8 (to give Δgpi8) resulted in the absence of GPI-anchored proteins from the cell surface of procyclic form trypanosomes and accumulation of a pool of non–protein-linked GPI molecules, some of which are surface located. Procyclic Δgpi8, while viable in culture, were unable to establish infections in the tsetse midgut, confirming that GPI-anchored proteins are essential for insect-parasite interactions. Applying specific inducible GPI8 RNAi with bloodstream form parasites resulted in accumulation of unanchored variant surface glycoprotein and cell death with a defined multinuclear, multikinetoplast, and multiflagellar phenotype indicative of a block in cytokinesis. These data show that GPI-anchored proteins are essential for the viability of bloodstream form trypanosomes even in the absence of immune challenge and imply that GPI8 is important for proper cell cycle progression