Pilot plant for production of fish ensilage and the economics of production

This communication describes the design aspect and functions of individual pieces of equipment of a pilot plant for the production of fish ensilage based on lactic acid fermentation process. Details about the equipment, process flow sheet and equipment layout of the pilot plant have been given. An attempt has been made to prepare an estimate of the cost of production of liquid ensilage and solid feed mix.

Oxygen consumption under copper and zinc stress in Perna viridis

The rate of oxygen consumption by Perna viridis pre-exposed to copper and zinc was studied. Those test individuals pre-exposed to various zinc concentrations showed variability in oxygen consumption irrespective of concentrations and pre-exposure period. While those animals pre-exposed to various copper concentrations registered decrease in oxygen consumption at concentrations above 0.06 p.p.m. copper, pre-exposure to concentrations below 0.02 p.p.m. copper did not result in any clear cut change in the rate of oxygen consumption.

Ipil-ipil (Leucaena leucocephala) leaves as a plant protein source in prawn diets

Penaeus monodon juveniles were fed diets containing fish meal, shrimp head meal and ipil-ipil leaves soaked and unsoaked, local and peruvian varieties. Mean weight gain at the end of 8 wk was significantly highest among those given the diet containing commercial ipil-ipil leaves. Gain in length followed the same pattern as mean weight gains. Among the diets containing ipil-ipil leaves there was a direct relationship in the amount of mimosine in the diet and the survival rate, the lower the amount of mimosine (due to soaking) the higher the survival rate. The Results thus indicate the beneficial effect of the addition of commercial ipil-ipil leaves to the diets of prawns, providing the mimosine content is kept low by soaking. A reduce in costs is also obtained, since 1kg of shrimp head meal or fish costs more than 2 or 4 tons, respectively, than that of ipil-ipil foliage.

Zinc coupling potentiates anti-HIV-1 activity of baicalin

Baicalin (BA) has been shown with anti-HIV-1 activity. Zinc is a nutrient element. The anti-HIV-1 activity of zinc complex of baicalin (BA-Zn) in vitro was studied and compared with the anti-HIV-1 activities between BA and BA-Zn in the present study. Our results suggested that BA-Zn has lower cytotoxicity and higher anti-HIV-1 activity compared with those of BA in vitro. The CC(50)s of BA-Zn and BA were 221.52 and 101.73 muM, respectively. The cytotoxicity of BA-Zn was about 1.2-fold lower than that of BA. The BA and BA-Zn inhibited HIV-1 induced syncytium formation, HIV-1 p24 antigen and HIV-1 RT production. The EC(50)s of BA-Zn on inhibiting HIV-1 induced syncytium formation (29.08 muM) and RT production (31.17 muM) were lower than those of BA (43.27 and 47.34 muM, respectively). BA-Zn was more effective than BA in inhibiting the activities of recombinant RT and HIV-1 entry into host cells. Zinc coupling enhanced the anti-HTV-1 activity of baicalin. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Origin and evolution of new exons in the rodent zinc finger protein 39 gene

The origin of new structures and functions is an important process in evolution. In the past decades, we have obtained some preliminary knowledge of the origin and evolution of new genes. However, as the basic unit of genes, the origin and evolution of exons remain unclear. Because young exons retain the footprints of origination, they can be good materials for studying origin and evolution of new exons. In this paper, we report two young exons in a zinc finger protein gene of rodents. Since they are unique sequences in mouse and rat genome and no homologous sequences were found in the orthologous genes of human and pig, the young exons might originate after the divergence of primates and rodents through exonization of intronic sequences. Strong positive selection was detected in the new exons between mouse and rat, suggesting that these exons have undergone significant functional divergence after the separation of the two species. On the other hand, population genetics data of mouse demonstrate that the new exons have been subject to functional constraint, indicating an important function of the new exons in mouse. Functional analyses suggest that these new exons encode a nuclear localization signal peptide, which may mediate new ways of nuclear protein transport. To our knowledge, this is the first example of the origin and evolution of young exons.

High rate of chimeric gene origination by retroposition in plant genomes

Retroposition is widely found to play essential roles in origination of new mammalian and other animal genes. However, the scarcity of retrogenes in plants has led to the assumption that plant genomes rarely evolve new gene duplicates by retroposition, de

Anti-HIV-1 activities of extracts from the medicinal plant Rhus chinensis

Rhus chinensis, a species used in folk medicine by Chinese native people, the anti-HIV-1 activities of the petroleum ether, ethyl acetate, butanol and aqueous extract of Rhus chinensis, named as RC-1, RC-2, RC-3 and RC-4, respectively, was evaluated. The

Anti-HIV-1 activities of compounds isolated from the medicinal plant Rhus chinensis

Aim of the study: Previously, we reported that the petroleum ether fraction, RC-1, and EtOAc fraction, RC-2, of the medicinal plant Rhus chinensis showed potent anti-HIV-1 activities. To address anti-HIV-1 constituents of RC-1 and RC-2, 17 compounds were

Chemical forms of copper, zinc, lead and cadmium in sediments of the northern part of the Red Sea, Egypt

Total concentrations and chemical forms of heavy metals in sediment samples from the Gulf of Suez and the northern part of the Red Sea, collected during January 2003, were determined by atomic absorption spectrometry. Maximum concentrations of 49.56, 65.42, 33.52 and 3.52 µg/g were recorded for total Cu, Zn, Pb and Cd respectively at Adabiya location. These may reflect the high contribution of land-based activities in the northern part of the Gulf. Also, high percentages of heavy metals were found in the residual fraction (Cu=78.61, Zn=77.10 and Pb=66.80%) while a high percentage of Cd was found in the carbonate fraction (45.82%). However, few or negligible percentages were recorded in the exchangeable fractions (Cu=0.51, Zn=1.57 and Pb=1.74%). Concentration of Cd in the exchangeable fraction was too low to be detected.

Electrical actuation and readout in a nanoelectromechanical resonator based on a laterally suspended zinc oxide nanowire.

In this paper, we present experimental results describing enhanced readout of the vibratory response of a doubly clamped zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowire employing a purely electrical actuation and detection scheme. The measured response suggests that the piezoelectric and semiconducting properties of ZnO effectively enhance the motional current for electromechanical transduction. For a doubly clamped ZnO nanowire resonator with radius ~10 nm and length ~1.91 µm, a resonant frequency around 21.4 MHz is observed with a quality factor (Q) of ~358 in vacuum. A comparison with the Q obtained in air (~242) shows that these nano-scale devices may be operated in fluid as viscous damping is less significant at these length scales. Additionally, the suspended nanowire bridges show field effect transistor (FET) characteristics when the underlying silicon substrate is used as a gate electrode or using a lithographically patterned in-plane gate electrode. Moreover, the Young's modulus of ZnO nanowires is extracted from a static bending test performed on a nanowire cantilever using an AFM and the value is compared to that obtained from resonant frequency measurements of electrically addressed clamped–clamped beam nanowire resonators.

Optimisation of fuel usage and steam availability in the power and steam plant of a paper mill

This paper presents the results of a project aimed at minimising fuel usage while maximising steam availability in the power and steam plant of a large newsprint mill. The approach taken was to utilise the better regulation and plant wide optimisation capabilities of Advanced Process Control, especially Model Predictive Control (MPC) techniques. These have recently made their appearance in the pulp and paper industry but are better known in the oil and petrochemical industry where they have been used for nearly 30 years. The issue in the power and steam plant is to ensure that sufficient steam is available when the paper machines require it and yet not to have to waste too much steam when one or more of the machines suffers an outage. This is a problem for which MPC is well suited. It allows variables to be kept within declared constraint ranges, a feature which has been used, effectively, to increase the steam storage capacity of the existing plant. This has resulted in less steam being condensed when it is not required and in significant reductions in the need for supplementary firing. The incidence of steam being dump-condensed while also supplementary firing the Combined Heat & Power (CHP) plant has been reduced by 95% and the overall use of supplementary firing is less than 30% of what it was. In addition the plant runs more smoothly and requires less operator time. The yearly benefit provided by the control system is greater than £200,000, measured in terms of 2005 gas prices.

Zinc oxide nanowire based hydrogen sensor on SOI CMOS platform

Here we report on the successful low-temperature growth of zinc oxide nanowires (ZnONWs) on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) CMOS micro-hotplates and their response, at different operating temperatures, to hydrogen in air. The SOI micro-hotplates were fabricated in a commercial CMOS foundry followed by a deep reactive ion etch (DRIE) in a MEMS foundry to form ultra-low power membranes. The micro-hotplates comprise p+ silicon micro-heaters and interdigitated metal electrodes (measuring the change in resistance of the gas sensitive nanomaterial). The ZnONWs were grown as a post-CMOS process onto the hotplates using a CMOS friendly hydrothermal method. The ZnONWs showed a good response to 500 to 5000 ppm of hydrogen in air. We believe that the integration of ZnONWs with a MEMS platform results in a low power, low cost, hydrogen sensor that would be suitable for handheld battery-operated gas sensors. © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.