Concurrent dyes adsorption and photo-degradation on fly ash based substrates

Most of the dyes are organic compounds, with different degree of polarization and different groups with various steric effects, making their complete biodegradation slow or even impossible. Adsorption on fly ash and fly ash based substrates represents a possible alternative for simultaneous removal of dyes and heavy metals form wastewaters resulted in the textile industry. Adsorption (under visible light) and adsorption and photodegradation (under UV irradiation) studies were done on Methylene blue solutions and on their mixtures with heavy metals (copper and cadmium), in systems using fly ash as single substrate, or mixed with a wide band gap semiconductor (TiO₂). The titanium oxides and hematite content in fly ash proved to be responsible for photodegradation processes even in the absence of the TiO₂ powder, confirming that modified fly ash is a viable candidate in developing up scalable processes for advanced wastewater treatment. The kinetic and thermodynamic studies allow to calculate the parameters and to describe the complex mechanisms, involving competitive adsorption.     

Continuity of weak solutions of elliptic partial differential equations

The continuity of weak solutions of elliptic partial differential equations

Effects of Thai medicinal herb extracts with anti-psoriatic activity on the expression on NF-κB signaling biomarkers in HaCaT keratinocytes

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disorder characterized by rapid proliferation of keratinocytes and incomplete keratinization. Discovery of safer and more effective anti-psoriatic drugs remains an area of active research at the present time. Using a HaCaT keratinocyte cell line as an in vitro model, we had previously found that ethanolic extracts from three Thai medicinal herbs, namely Alpinia galanga, Curcuma longa and Annona squamosa, possessed anti-psoriatic activity. In the current study, we aimed at investigating if these Thai medicinal herb extracts played a molecular role in suppressing psoriasis via regulation of NF-κB signaling biomarkers. Using semi-quantitative RT-PCR and report gene assays, we analyzed the effects of these potential herbal extracts on 10 different genes of the NF-κB signaling network in HaCaT cells. In accordance with our hypothesis, we found that the extract derived from Alpinia galanga significantly increased the expression of TNFAIP3 and significantly reduced the expression of CSF-1 and NF-kB2. Curcuma longa extract significantly decreased the expression of CSF-1, IL-8, NF-kB2, NF-kB1 and RelA, while Annona squamosa extract significantly lowered the expression of CD40 and NF-kB1. Therefore, this in vitro study suggested that these herbal extracts capable of functioning against psoriasis, might exert their activity by controlling the expression of NF-κB signaling biomarkers.     

Optimization of the gravimetric determination method of nickel as dimethylglyoximate for nickel raw materials

The method parameters of an almost one century old method for analyzing nickel as dimethylglyoximate were critically examined for the analysis of nickel raw materials and many of the method parameters were observed to have a significant effect on the Ni recovery. Thus, because the Ni precipitation method parameters vary a lot in analytical literature and also in practice, the obtained Ni results by different methods are not comparable. During this study it was found that the double precipitation worked out perfectly in eliminating the effects of impurity elements. The residual Ni content in the filtrates should also be measured to obtain accurate and precise Ni results. In complexing the impurity elements, tartaric acid, stabilized by acetic acid, turned out to be effective, and when added to the sample solution before ammonium addition, the best pH conditions for homogenous Ni precipitation with dimethylglyoxime were obtained. The optimized Ni determination method described was found to be accurate and highly reproducible when tested with Ni concentrates and standard reference materials containing high Ni concentrations.     

A strong Lebesgue point property for Sobolev functions

We show that first-order Sobolev functions fulfill a Wiener integral type Lebesgue point property outside a set of Sobolev capacity zero. Our condition is stronger than the standard Lebesgue point property, but the exceptional set is slightly larger.

     

Synthesis and Characterization of a Novel Phosphonate Metal Organic Framework Starting from Copper Salts

Abstract

Increased interest in the area of metal phosphonate inorganic–organic frameworks is exemplified with a high range of applications and a rich synthetic and structural chemistry of these compounds. The synthesis and potential applications of a novel metal phosphonate, namely Cu(II) phenylvinylphosphonate (PVP) is described in this paper. Syntheses were performed starting from a 1:1 molar ratio of a Cu(NO₃)₂·6H₂O or CuSO₄·5H₂O and 1-phenylvinylphosphonic acid under hydrothermal conditions at pH values ranging between 2.8 and 3.1. The influence of different counterion for the copper salt used as the Cu(II) source on the structure and crystallinity of the final product was studied. The obtained copper(II) phenylvinylphosphonate compounds were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, FT-IR spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDAX). A possible crystal structure for the copper (II) phenylvinylphosphonate products is proposed using semiempirical approaches.     

Sobolev embeddings in metric measure spaces with variable dimension

In this article we study metric measure spaces with variable dimension. We consider Lebesgue spaces on these sets, and embeddings of the Riesz potential in these spaces. We also investigate Hajłasz-type Sobolev spaces, and prove Sobolev and Trudinger inequalities with optimal exponents. All of these questions lead naturally to function spaces with variable exponents. Supported the Research Council of Norway, Project 160192/V30.     

Optimization of the gravimetric determination method of nickel as dimethylglyoximate for nickel raw materials

The method parameters of an almost one century old method for analyzing nickel as dimethylglyoximate were critically examined for the analysis of nickel raw materials and many of the method parameters were observed to have a significant effect on the Ni recovery. Thus, because the Ni precipitation method parameters vary a lot in analytical literature and also in practice, the obtained Ni results by different methods are not comparable. During this study it was found that the double precipitation worked out perfectly in eliminating the effects of impurity elements. The residual Ni content in the filtrates should also be measured to obtain accurate and precise Ni results. In complexing the impurity elements, tartaric acid, stabilized by acetic acid, turned out to be effective, and when added to the sample solution before ammonium addition, the best pH conditions for homogenous Ni precipitation with dimethylglyoxime were obtained. The optimized Ni determination method described was found to be accurate and highly reproducible when tested with Ni concentrates and standard reference materials containing high Ni concentrations. Received: 26 December 1998 / Revised: 12 April 1999 / Accepted: 14 April 1999     

A Theorem on Fine Connectedness

We prove that E is a p-fine domain whenever R ⁿ is a p-fine domain, E R ⁿ is p-polar, and 1 < p n. By a p-fine domain we understand an open connected set in the p-fine topology, i.e. in the coarsest topology making all p-superharmonic functions continuous. As an application of our main result, we establish a general version of minimum principle.