Influence of oxygen availability on cell growth and xylitol production by Candida guilliermondii

Oxygen availability is the most important environmental parameter in the production of xylitol by yeasts, directly affecting yields and volumetric productivity. This work evaluated the cell behavior in fermentations carried out with different dissolved oxygen concentrations (0.5–30.0% of saturation), as well as a limited oxygen restriction (0% of saturation), at several oxygen volumetric transfer coefficients (12 ≤ k _L a ≤ 70 h⁻¹). These experiments allowed us to establish the specific oxygen uptake rate limits to ensure high yields and volumetric productivity. When oxygen availability was limited, the specific oxygen uptake rate values were between 12 and 26 mg of O₂/of g cell·h, resulting in a yield of 0.71 g of xylitol/xylose consumed, and 0.85 g/[L·h] for the volumetric productivity. According to the results, the effective control of the specific oxygen uptake rate makes it possible to establish complete control over this fermentative process, for both cell growth and xylitol production.     

Layered double hydroxide(LDH)-based materials:A mini-review on strategies to improve the performance for photocatalytic water splitting

The high energy demand we currently face in society and the subsequent large consumption of fossil fuels cause its depletion and increase the pollution levels.The quest for the production of clean energy from renewable and sustainable sources remains open.The conversion of solar energy into hydrogen via the water-splitting process,assisted by pho tores pons ive semiconductor catalysts,is one of the most promising technologies.Significant progress has been made on water splitting in the past few years and a variety of photocatalysts active not only under ultra-violet(UV) light but especially with the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum have been developed.Layered double hydroxides(LDH)-based materials have emerged as a promising class of nanomaterials for solar energy applications owing to their unique layered structure,compositional flexibility,tunable bandgaps,ease of synthesis and low manufacturing costs.This review covers the most recent research dedicated to LDH materials for photocatalytic water-splitting applications and encompasses a range of synthetic strategies and post-modifications used to enhance their performance.Moreover,we provide a thorough discussion of the experimental conditions crucial to obtaining improved photoactivity and highlight the impact of some specific parameters,namely,catalysts loading,cocatalysts,sacrificial agents,and irradiation sources.This review provides the necessary tools to select the election technique for adequately enhancing the photoactivity of LDH and modified LDH-based materials and concludes with a critical summary that outlines further research directions.     

Routine analysis by high precision gas chromatography/mass selective detector/isotope ratio mass spectrometry to 0.1 parts per mil

Stable isotope methods are potentially quite useful for validating natural or enhanced mineral degradation of contaminants. For this reason, a continuous flow gas chromatograph (GC), isotope ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS) has been coupled with a quadrupole mass selective detector (MSD) to allow simultaneous mass spectral and stable carbon isotope ratio data to be obtained from a single chromatographic analysis. This allows the target contaminant and any extra-cellular degradation intermediates to be both qualified and quantified. Previously acceptable limits of precision (0.3 parts per mil) are undesirable given the small fractionation observed during aerobic degradation. To further understand the fate of organic contaminants and to gain information about the metabolic degradative pathway employed by a microorganism, routine isotopic analyses on a range of analytes have been performed. Quantities of sample producing mass-44 ion beam signal (I(44)) of 2 x 10(-10) to 1 x 10(-8) A were analysed. When the IRMS was tuned for high sensitivity, ion source nonlinearities were overcome by peak height correction from an algorithm that was produced using known isotopic standards of varying concentrations. This led to sample accuracy of <0.01 per thousand and sample precision of 0.1 per thousand. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Frequency scan for the analysis of high mass ions generated by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization in a paul trap

An ion trap has been modified for the analysis of high mass ions generated by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization. Samples are deposited on a probe tip and introduced directly onto the hyperbolically shaped surface of one endcap. All three electrodes - both the endcaps and the ring electrode - are insulated so that the radio frequency (Rf) voltage may be applied to the center ring electrode and the inverted Rf voltage to the endcaps. By using low frequencies (below 100 kHz) and low amplitudes (below 200 V), high mass singly charged ions may be trapped and analyzed by a frequency sweep at constant amplitude. In the high mass range (60-160 kDa), this instrument showed good sensitivity, signal-to-noise ratios, and mass resolution. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On conformal distortion and Sullivan's sector theorem

Using general bounds on the conformal distortion of univalent maps, we prove a strong version of Sullivan's sector theorem, which gives certain sufficient conditions for an arbitrarily long composition of univalent Herglotz functions to map the upper half-plane into a proper sub-sector.

     

Local and global stability for Lotka-Volterra systems with distributed delays and instantaneous negative feedbacks

This paper addresses the local and global stability of n-dimensional Lotka-Volterra systems with distributed delays and instantaneous negative feedbacks. Necessary and sufficient conditions for local stability independent of the choice of the delay functions are given, by imposing a weak nondelayed diagonal dominance which cancels the delayed competition effect. The global asymptotic stability of positive equilibria is established under conditions slightly stronger than the ones required for the linear stability. For the case of monotone interactions, however, sharper conditions are presented. This paper generalizes known results for discrete delays to systems with distributed delays. Several applications illustrate the results.     

Elastic scattering and total reaction cross section for the He + Al system

The elastic scattering of the radioactive halo nucleus ⁶He on ²⁷Al target was measured at four energies close to the Coulomb barrier using the RIBRAS (Radioactive Ion Beams in Brazil) facility. The São Paulo Potential (SPP) was used and its diffuseness and imaginary strength were adjusted to fit the elastic scattering angular distributions. Reaction cross-sections were extracted from the optical model fits. The reduced reaction cross-sections of ⁶He on ²⁷Al are similar to those for stable, weakly bound projectiles as ^6,7Li, ⁹Be and larger than stable, tightly bound projectile as ¹⁶O on ²⁷Al.     

Nonsequential double ionization with few-cycle laser pulses

We investigate differential electron momentum distributions in nonsequential double ionization with linearly polarized, few-cycle pulses, using a classical model based on a laser-assisted inelastic (e(-),2e(-)) rescattering mechanism. These yields, as functions of the momentum components parallel to the laser polarization, are highly asymmetric and strongly influenced by the phase difference between the pulse envelope and its carrier oscillation, radically changing their sign around a critical phase. This behavior provides a powerful tool for absolute-phase measurements.     

The chlorate-iodine clock reaction

A clock reaction produced by mixing chlorate and iodine solutions in perchloric acid media is reported. This is the first example of a clock reaction using chlorate as a reagent. Increasing chlorate and acid concentration reduces the induction period. Changing the initial iodine concentration does not affect the length of the induction period. The discovery of this clock reaction opens the possibility that a new family of oscillation reactions can be built using chlorate as reagent.