Modeling of cumulative release on long term leaching behaviour of selected oil sludge from crude oil terminal and petroleum refining plant

Management of oil sludge containing environmentally toxic elements is a major problem in crude oil processing industry. Oil sludge samples from the petroleum refinery plant in Melaka and crude oil terminal in Sarawak were analysed. The aim of present work is to study long term leaching behaviour of arsenic (As), cobalt (Co), chromium (Cr) and zinc (Zn) from oil sludge. Tank leaching test was carried out and the samples were analysed using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The results were studied using LeachXS software to plot the graphs of elements concentration in order to study the leaching behaviour of toxic elements in oil sludge. The long term leaching (100 years) modeling was calculated using equations referred to National Institute of Public Health and the Environment Bilthoven (RIVM) and the results were plotted for cumulative release in different areas of oil sludge. Tank leaching test of the oil sludge samples from petroleum refinery plant in Melaka showed concentrations of As, Co, Cr and Zn ranging from 0.205 to 1.102, 0.031–0.454, 0.016–0.086 and 0.409–8.238 mg/l, respectively while the concentrations of As, Co, Cr and Zn in oil sludge samples from crude oil terminal in Sarawak were in the range of 0.002–0.089, 0.001–0.033, 0.006–0.016 and 0.100–2.744 mg/l, respectively. On the other hand, results on cumulative release from the modeling of long term leaching (100 years) showed that As, Co, Cr and Zn concentrations were proportional to the quantity of oil sludge. In conclusion, during extrapolation of release of toxic elements using the data in the laboratory, several other factors were taken into account to suit environmental conditions such as soil moisture, the negative logarithm of the effective diffusion coefficient (pD_e) and temperature, while the long-term behaviour of As, Co, Cr and Zn was proportional to the quantity of oil sludge to be disposed off.     

Interaction of Nonionic Surfactant Triton-X-100 with Ionic Surfactants

The interaction in two mixtures of a nonionic surfactant Triton-X-100 (TX-100) and different ionic surfactants was investigated. The two mixtures were TX-100/sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and TX-100/cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) at molar fraction of TX-100, α_TX-100 = 0.6. The surface properties of the surfactants, critical micelle concentration (CMC), effectiveness of surface tension reduction (γ_CMC), maximum surface excess concentration (Γ_max), and minimum area per molecule at the air/solution interface (A _min) were determined for both individual surfactants and their mixtures. The significant deviations from ideal behavior (attractive interactions) of the nonionic/ionic surfactant mixtures were also determined. Mixtures of both TX-100/SDS and TX-100/CTAB exhibited synergism in surface tension reduction efficiency and mixed micelle formation, but neither exhibited synergism in surface tension reduction effectiveness.     

3-D Quantum Transport Solver Based on the Perfectly Matched Layer and Spectral Element Methods for the Simulation of Semiconductor Nanodevices

A 3-D quantum transport solver based on the spectral element method (SEM) and perfectly matched layer (PML) is introduced to solve the 3-D Schr?dinger equation with a tensor effective mass. In this solver, the influence of the environment is replaced with the artificial PML open boundary extended beyond the contact regions of the device. These contact regions are treated as waveguides with known incident waves from waveguide mode solutions. As the transmitted wave function is treated as a total wave, there is no need to decompose it into waveguide modes, thus significantly simplifying the problem in comparison with conventional open boundary conditions. The spectral element method leads to an exponentially improving accuracy with the increase in the polynomial order and sampling points. The PML region can be designed such that less than -100 dB outgoing waves are reflected by this artificial material. The computational efficiency of the SEM solver is demonstrated by comparing the numerical and analytical results from waveguide and plane-wave examples, and its utility is illustrated by multiple-terminal devices and semiconductor nanotube devices.     

Structural preferences of gas-phase M2TMP monomers upon sequence variations

The conformations of a number of M2TMP(22-46) sequence variants have been investigated using ion mobility spectrometry (IMS). Substantial conformational changes were evidenced by IMS upon the variation of a single amino acid in the peptide sequence, with two main drift time signatures. Replica-exchange molecular dynamics simulations were used to help assign the structures of the different identified conformers. Even though one-on-one agreement with experiment was found for only two variants, the simulations generally confirmed the existence of two structural families. Based on these results, most of the triply protonated variants, including the wild-type peptide, were found to display collision cross sections in agreement with compact conformations in the gas phase, whereas they tend to form extended α-helices in the condensed phase, as confirmed by circular dichroism and previously reported NMR measurements. The destabilization of α-helices in vacuo upon amino acid substitution is interpreted as being driven by the solvation pattern of the charges.     

Comparison between triple quadrupole, time of flight and hybrid quadrupole time of flight analysers coupled to liquid chromatography for the detection of anabolic steroids in doping control analysis

Triple quadrupole (QqQ), time of flight (TOF) and quadrupole-time of flight (QTOF) analysers have been compared for the detection of anabolic steroids in human urine. Ten anabolic steroids were selected as model compounds based on their ionization and the presence of endogenous interferences. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses were evaluated. QqQ allowed for the detection of all analytes at the minimum required performance limit (MRPL) established by the World Anti-Doping Agency (between 2 and 10 ng mL(-1) in urine). TOF and QTOF approaches were not sensitive enough to detect some of the analytes (3'-hydroxy-stanozolol or the metabolites of boldenone and formebolone) at the established MRPL. Although a suitable accuracy was obtained, the precision was unsatisfactory (RSD typically higher than 20%) for quantitative purposes irrespective of the analyser used. The methods were applied to 30 real samples declared positives either for the misuse of boldenone, stanozolol and/or methandienone. Most of the compounds were detected by every technique, however QqQ was necessary for the detection of some metabolites in a few samples. Finally, the possibility to detect non-target steroids has been explored by the use of TOF and QTOF. The use of this approach revealed that the presence of boldenone and its metabolite in one sample was due to the intake of androsta-1,4,6-triene-3,17-dione. Additionally, the intake of methandienone was confirmed by the post-target detection of a long-term metabolite.     

Temperature sensor based on fluorescence measurement of Cerium Ytterbium doped fiber

An investigation of the characteristics of temperature-dependent fluorescence of a Cerium Ytterbium (Yb³⁺)- doped silica fiber (CYDF) is presented. A 0.3-m long CYDF is diode-pumped at 976 nm and the fluorescence intensity is measured against the fiber temperature. It is observed that the fluorescence intensity decreases linearly with the increase in temperature due to the enhancement of non-radiative transition as well as the quenching of the Ytterbium luminescence. The sensitivity of the sensor is obtained at 0.0024 mW/°C with a linearity of more than 98% in the range of room temperature to 250°C. The proposed sensor is compact, low-cost and has long-life. It can also be combined with a wide range of existing fiber-optic multiplexing schemes that can simultaneously detect multiple physical parameters.     

Electrochemical inhibition bacterial sensor array for detection of water pollutants: artificial neural network (ANN) approach

This work reports on further development of an inhibition electrochemical sensor array based on immobilized bacteria for the preliminary detection of a wide range of organic and inorganic pollutants, such as heavy metal salts (HgCl₂, PbCl₂, CdCl₂), pesticides (atrazine, simazine, DDVP), and petrochemicals (hexane, octane, pentane, toluene, pyrene, and ethanol) in water. A series of DC and AC electrochemical measurements, e.g., cyclic voltammograms and impedance spectroscopy, were carried out on screen-printed gold electrodes with three types of bacteria, namely Escherichia coli, Shewanella oneidensis, and Methylococcus capsulatus, immobilized via poly l-lysine. The results obtained showed a possibility of pattern recognition of the above pollutants by their inhibition effect on the three bacteria used. The analysis of a large amount of experimental data was carried out using an artificial neural network (ANN) programme for more accurate identification of pollutants as well as the estimation of their concentration. The results are encouraging for the development of a simple and cost-effective biosensing technology for preliminary in-field analysis (screening) of water samples for the presence of environmental pollutants.

Graphical abstract

     

Switchable Q-switched and mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser operating in the L-band region

We demonstrate a switchable Q-switched and mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) operating in the L-band region using the nonlinear polarization rotation effect. The switching operation is achieved by controlling intensity-dependent loss using a polarization controller. In Q-switching mode, the EDFL produces a pulse train with a repetition rate of 21.1 kHz, pulse width of 7.7 μs, and pulse energy of 13.6 nJ. The EDFL also generates a multi-wavelength comb with a very narrow and constant wavelength spacing of 0.045 nm and optical signal-to-noise ratio of at least 10 dB. During mode locking, the EDFL produces stretched pulses with 3-dB bandwidth of 26.2 nm, pulse width of 350 fs, repetition rate of 2.38 MHz, and pulse energy of 48.56 pJ.     

Targeting 3CLpro and SARS-CoV-2 RdRp by Amphimedon sp. Metabolites: A Computational Study

Since December 2019, novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused tremendous economic loss and serious health problems worldwide. In this study, we investigated 14 natural compounds isolated from Amphimedon sp. via a molecular docking study, to examine their ability to act as anti-COVID-19 agents. Moreover, the pharmacokinetic properties of the most promising compounds were studied. The docking study showed that virtually screened compounds were effective against the new coronavirus via dual inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 RdRp and the 3CL main protease. In particular, nakinadine B (1), 20-hepacosenoic acid (11) and amphimedoside C (12) were the most promising compounds, as they demonstrated good interactions with the pockets of both enzymes. Based on the analysis of the molecular docking results, compounds 1 and 12 were selected for molecular dynamics simulation studies. Our results showed Amphimedon sp. to be a rich source for anti-COVID-19 metabolites.     

Synergistic Roles of Curcumin in Sensitising the Cisplatin Effect on a Cancer Stem Cell-Like Population Derived from Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Cell Lines

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) represent a small subpopulation within a tumour. These cells possess stem cell-like properties but also initiate resistance to cytotoxic agents, which contributes to cancer relapse. Natural compounds such as curcumin that contain high amounts of polyphenols can have a chemosensitivity effect that sensitises CSCs to cytotoxic agents such as cisplatin. This study was designed to investigate the efficacy of curcumin as a chemo-sensitiser in CSCs subpopulation of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) using the lung cancer adenocarcinoma human alveolar basal epithelial cells A549 and H2170. The ability of curcumin to sensitise lung CSCs to cisplatin was determined by evaluating stemness characteristics, including proliferation activity, colony formation, and spheroid formation of cells treated with curcumin alone, cisplatin alone, or the combination of both at 24, 48, and 72 h. The mRNA level of genes involved in stemness was analysed using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry was used to evaluate the effect of curcumin on the CSC niche. A combined treatment of A549 subpopulations with curcumin reduced cellular proliferation activity at all time points. Curcumin significantly (p < 0.001) suppressed colonies formation by 50% and shrank the spheroids in CSC subpopulations, indicating inhibition of their self-renewal capability. This effect also was manifested by the down-regulation of SOX2, NANOG, and KLF4. Curcumin also regulated the niche of CSCs by inhibiting chemoresistance proteins, aldehyde dehydrogenase, metastasis, angiogenesis, and proliferation of cancer-related proteins. These results show the potential of using curcumin as a therapeutic approach for targeting CSC subpopulations in non-small cell lung cancer.