Assessment of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Urtica</Emphasis> as a low-cost adsorbent for methylene blue removal: kinetic,equilibrium, and thermodynamic studies

Methylene blue (MB) removal using eco-friendly, cost-effective, and freely available Urtica was investigated. The morphology of the adsorbent surface and the nature of the possible Urtica and MB interactions were examined using SEM analysis and the FTIR technique, respectively. Various factors affecting MB adsorption such as adsorption time, initial MB concentration, temperature, and solution pH were investigated. The adsorption process was analysed using different kinetic models and isotherms. The results showed that the MB adsorption kinetic follows a pseudo-second-order kinetic model and the isotherm data fit the Langmuir isotherm well. Thermodynamic parameters, such as ΔG°, ΔH°, and ΔS°, were also evaluated, and the results indicated that the adsorption process is endothermic and spontaneous in nature. The MB adsorption capacity of Urtica was found to be as high as 101.01 mg g^?1, higher than those of many other adsorbents studied in the literature. This superior adsorption capacity, along with the ready availability of Urtica, render this adsorbent potentially suitable for practical applications.     

The Category of S-Posets

In this paper, we consider some category-theoretic properties of the category Pos-S of all S-posets (posets equipped with a compatible right action of a pomonoid S), with monotone action-preserving maps between them. We first discuss some general category-theoretic ingredients of Pos-S; specifically, we characterize several kinds of epimorphisms and monomorphisms. Then, we present some adjoint relations of Pos-S with Pos, Set, and Act-S. In particular, we discuss free and cofree objects. We also examine other category-theoretic properties, such as cartesian closedness and monadicity. Finally, we consider projectivity in Pos-S with respect to regular epimorphisms and show that it is the same asprojectivity, although projectives are not generally retracts of free objects over posets.     

Mechanically stable porous cellulose media for affinity purification of family 9 cellulose-binding module-tagged fusion proteins

A mechanically stable cellulose-based chromatography media was synthesized to permit inexpensive affinity purification of recombinant proteins containing the family 9 carbohydrate-binding module (CBM9) fused to either the N- or C-terminus of the target protein. A second-order response surface model was used to identify optimal concentrations of the primary reactants, epichlorohydrin and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), required to cross-link the starting material, Perloza MT100, a compressible but inexpensive cellulose-based chromatography resin. This resulted in a mechanically stable cross-linked affinity chromatography media capable of operating at an order-of-magnitude higher linear velocity than permitted by unmodified MT100. Moments and Van Deemter analyses were used to show that rates of solute mass transfer within the column are largely unaffected by the cross-linking reaction, while the binding capacity decreased by 20% to 7.1 micromol of protein/g resin, a value superior to most commercial affinity chromatography media. In sharp contrast to MT100, the mechanical stability and purification performance of the cross-linked media are not diminished by scale-up or repeated column use.     

Syngas production by combined carbon dioxide reforming and partial oxidation of methane over Ni/α-Al2O3 catalysts

Ni/α-Al2O3 catalysts were found to be active in the temperature range 600~900 ℃ for both CO2 reforming and partial oxidation of methane. The effects of Ni loading, reaction temperature and feed gas ratio for the combination of CO2 reforming and partial oxidation of CH4 over Ni/α-Al2O3 were investigated. Catalysts of xwt%Ni/α-Al2O3 (x = 2.5, 5, 8 and 12) were prepared by wet impregnating the calcined support with a solution of nickel nitrate. XRD patterns and activity tests have verified that the 5wt%Ni/α-Al2O3 was the most active catalyst, as compared with the other prepared catalyst samples. An increase of the Ni loading to more than 5 wt% led to a reduction in the Ni dispersion. In addition, by combining the endothermic carbon dioxide reforming reaction with the exothermic partial oxidation reaction, the loss of catalyst activity with time on stream was reduced with the amount of oxygen added to the feed.     

Early stages of gelation in gelatin solution detected by dynamic oscillating rheology and nuclear magnetic spectroscopy

This study focuses on the early stages of the gelation of an aqueous type A (pig skin) gelatin solution. The thermo-reversible mono and triple helix formation was observed by rheology and proton NMR relaxation measurements. At high temperatures (T > 330 K), gelatin molecules form flexible random coils of small hydrodynamic radius, the elastic modulus of the solution is relatively low. On decreasing the temperature (330-320 K), mono helix formation begins, connected with an increase of the storage modulus and the hydrodynamic radius. The absence of a significant concentration dependence of this early variation of the modulus indicates the intramolecular nature of this structural change. The simultaneous decrease of the spin-spin relaxation times of the ¹H signals of certain aminoacids confirms its effect on the molecular mobility. As this affects especially the signals of arginine and lysine, we conclude that these basic aminoacids play a significant role in forming the intramolecular interactions. The formation of a three-dimensional network occurs at a point at which the viscosity begins to increase rapidly near the gel point (T < 320 K). This process is clearly dominated by intermolecular interactions, as the slope as well as the starting point of the rapid increase significantly depends on the concentration.     

Directed complete poset congruences

The study of algebraic properties of ordered structures has shown that their behavior in many cases is different from algebraic structures. For example, the analogues of the fundamental mapping theorem for sets which characterizes surjective maps as quotient sets modulo their kernel relations, is not true for order-preserving maps between posets (partially ordered sets). The main objective of this paper is to study the quotients of dcpos (directed complete partially ordered sets), and their relations with surjective dcpo maps (directed join preserving maps). The motivation of studying such infinitary ordered structures is their importance in domain theory, a theory on the borderline of mathematics and theoretical computer science.In this paper, introducing the notion of a pre-congruence on dcpos (directed complete partially ordered sets), we give a characterization of dcpo congruences. Also, it is proved that unlike natural dcpo congruences, the dcpo congruences are precisely kernels of surjective dcpo maps. Also, while it is known that the image of a dcpo map is not necessarily a subdcpo of its codomain, we find equivalent conditions on a dcpo map to satisfy this property. Moreover, we prove the Decomposition Theorem and its consequences for dcpo maps.