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© 2020 Elsevier B.V. The dependence on chemical fertilizers and pesticides to increase agricultural outputs owing to the demands of a growing human population creates the need for a sustainable fertilizer. Biochar is presently a promising candidate as an inoculant carrier, given its highly porous structure, with nutrients naturally derived from the biomass, high water, and nutrient retention properties, which favor microbial growth. Biochar can be produced through pyrolysis, hydrothermal carbonization, gasification, and torrefaction. The porosity and adsorption ability of biochar allows it to be effectively used as a carrier to immobilize plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) for enhanced crop growth. Furthermore, the physicochemical properties of biochar like surface area, pore properties, and surface functional groups can be further modified via several activation methods, such as chemical oxidation and reduction, and physical activation to optimize the PGPR immobilization. The understanding of the agronomic impacts of biochar and the possible scaling up of cell immobilization will provide insights on the mechanism of biochar as an efficient inoculant carrier. This will contribute to fewer environmental hazards with the utilization of biochar for promoting plant growth. The complex interplay of physicochemical properties of biochar as a carrier to immobilize PGPR and the potential mechanisms of biochar-based inoculants are significant to achieve agricultural sustainability.

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd This study focused on the bioethanol production from the co-production of solid biochar and liquid hydrolysate under microwave-assisted heating wet torrefaction towards a sustainable green technology. The two indigenous microalgal biomass undergone dilute acid pretreatment using wet torrefaction to produce microalgal hydrolysates and biochar at operating conditions of 160–170 °C with holding times of 5–10 min. The hydrolysates were utilized for fermentation with the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae at 29 °C in a dark condition at a non-agitation state for 120 h. The concentrations of total reducing sugar, reducing sugar by-product, and bioethanol in the hydrolysates were determined. The carbohydrate-rich microalga C. vulgaris ESP-31 showed a good performance in bioethanol production. Microalgal hydrolysate obtained after the pretreatment consisted of a total reducing sugar with the highest concentration of 98.11 g/L. The formation of by-product 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furaldehyde (5-HMF), which might act as the fermentation inhibitor that led to the low ethanol yield, was also analyzed. The highest ethanol yield achieved was 7.61% with a maximum experimental conversion probability of 95.22%. This study has demonstrated the feasible bioethanol production from microalgal hydrolysate through microwave-assisted heating wet torrefaction using dilute acids and the optimization of bioethanol production can be carried out for better performance in the future study.

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd TG-FTIR and double-shot Py-GC/MS were executed to investigate the effects of torrefaction pretreatment on microalga (Chlorella vulgaris ESP-31) pyrolysis. TG-FTIR was performed to analyze the pyrolysis and combustion gas of raw and wet torrefied microalgae, whereas double-shot Py-GC/MS was applied to investigate the product distributions of single and two-stage thermal degradation of the microalgae. From the result, wet torrefaction successfully eliminated the release of CO in the pyrolysis gas. The highest generation of C–H during pyrolysis was achieved by the microalgae pretreated with dilute sulfuric acid. In the combustion gas, the intensity of O–H absorption band was removed in the first stage after wet torrefaction. The Py-GC/MS analysis revealed that the fatty acids (48.22%) were the dominant component in the bio-oil derived from the microalgae pretreated by the dilute sulfuric acid in wet torrefaction. Meanwhile, the productivity of carbohydrate-derived products (anhydrous sugars) decreased from 18.58 to 0.39% in the pyrolytic bio-oil after the wet torrefaction pretreatment. In contrast, carbohydrate- and lipid-derived products were decreased in the bio-oil after the dry torrefaction pretreatment. Similarly, microwave-assisted wet torrefaction in sulfuric acid is an effective pretreatment technique to produce high-quality pyrolytic bio-oil for biofuel production.

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Wet torrefaction is a promising method to converts the high moisture microalgae to biofuel. In this study, the microalgae were torrefied in water or dilute acid solutions with the aid of microwaves irradiation. The reaction temperature and heating time were fixed at 160 °C and 10 min. The effects of sulfuric, phosphorus, and succinic acids on two different microalgae species (Chlorella vulgaris ESP-31 and FSP-E) were investigated. As a result, the disruption of the microalga FSP-E (high protein) was not notable in the acidic solution. The higher heating value of wet torrefied microalga ESP-31 (high carbohydrate) in succinic acid was enhanced up to 40% with at least 45% of energy yield. The use of 0.1 M of phosphorus acid in wet torrefaction produced the highest ash content of 1.61 and 11.60 wt% for microalgae ESP-31 and FSP-E, respectively. Thermogravimetric analysis revealed that the carbohydrate content of microalga ESP-31 has the highest degradation in sulfuric acid solution. In contrast, crystalline cellulose in the microalgae is hardly affected by the wet torrefaction process in low-temperature acidic solution. In terms of liquid product, a maximum glucose extraction of 35.39 g/L occurred with the use of 0.1 M of sulfuric acid. In conclusion, biochar produced using organic acid is desirable as solid fuel, whereas the use of sulfuric acid is more suitable to produce sugar for bioethanol production.

Pallister-Killian Syndrome (PKS) is a rare sporadic genetic disorder and tissue-limited characteristics of i(12p) mosaicism. We report a boy who is diagnosed with PKS until the age of 2 years and 3 months. Amniocentesis at 18 weeks of gestation due to advanced maternal age revealed a mosaic supernumerary marker chromosome (47,XY,+mar[30]/46,XY[28]) which was suspected to be an isochromosome 21q. At 21 weeks of gestation, subsequent fetal blood sampling done in another clinic disclosed a normal male karyotype (46,XY). Therefore, the mother chose to continue pregnancy. A conventional chromosome analysis complements the Fluorescence In-Situ Hybridization (FISH) and array Comparative Genomic Hybridization (aCGH) were done from patient’s skin fibroblast culture.The karyotype was confirmed to be mos47,XY,+mar.ish i(12p)[110]/46,XY[11], and array CGH revealed a fourfold increment in 12p. Amniocentesis and conventional chromosomal analysis complements the FISH and array CGH is the optimal method in prenatal diagnosis of PKS. However fetal blood sampling chromosome analysis and peripheral blood array CGH are not recommended because of tissue-limited mosaicism of i(12p) is the characteristic cytogenetic feature of PKS and the extra-chromosome can rarely be identified in blood lymphocyte either prenatally or postnatally.

This study applied the non-woven material from used diaper as the carrier for bio-film process to purify the recycled water from a landscape pond at the Tainan City Municipal Culture Center (TCMCC), Taiwan. An on-site system was installed and the experiment was accomplished through three stages in 192 days with different time periods of 70 days, 63 days, and 59 days, respectively. The results showed that the non-woven media is functional for SS removal. The average SS removal of stages 1, 2, and 3 were 91%, 96%, and 95%, respectively. The highest SCOD removal efciency of 90% occurred at stage 3. A signicant color improvement of the pond water was achieved through this non-woven bio-carrier treatment sys-tem. Whole system can be without any maintenance for 139 days. The result indicated that the non-woven medium system was with a great potential in treating and recycling the pond water with stable operation and satisfactory removal performance. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd.

A pilot-scale study of pharmaceutical wastewater treatment by a membrane bioreactor (MBR) process in southern Taiwan is presented in this paper. A 10 m3/day capacity MBR plant consisting of an aeration tank and a membrane bioreactor was installed to remove organic matter (measured in terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD)). The performance of the MBR was monitored for a period of 140 days. The removal of COD was on average over 95%. The effluent did not contain any suspended solids. During the 140 days of operation, manual cleaning was carried out twice and chemical cleaning was carried out once. A natural logarithmic evolution of the viscosity with TSS concentration was observed. The results of SEM and EDX demonstrated that the fouling on the membrane outer surface was mainly due to microorganisms and/or the sludge physiological properties. The results indicated that the MBR system has potential as a means of treating high-strength and fluctuating strength wastewater with consistent performance. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The paper reviews the effect of particle size distribution and pore size distribution on granular bed filter and crossflow microfiltration performance. The experimental results of the granular bed filter with pollen particles in suspension showed that the presence of large particles improved the filter efficiency of smaller particles in suspension. Microfiltration results with bi and tri-modal latex suspensions showed that the permeate flux and the quality were significantly affected by the particle size and its distribution, especially when the particle size was smaller than the pore size of the membrane. The mathematical model simulation results of granular bed filtration show that media pore size distribution is an important parameter of filtration for the particle removal and pressure drop across the filter.

In this study, the feasibility and the treatment efficiency of treating ABS industrial wastewater by an aerated submerged membrane bioreactor (ASMBR) was investigated. Through a long-term experiment, biomass, biological oxygen demand (BOD5,) chemical oxygen demand (COD), total organic carbon (TOC) and permeate flux were measured to evaluate the MBR performance. The results show that a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 18 h leads to the highest biomass concentration, a maximum mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) value of approximately 35 g/L. Chemical membrane cleaning was employed twice, after 131 and 180 days of operation in the total experimental period of 204 days. The membrane bioreactor led to superior COD and BOD5 removal in ABS wastewater compared to the conventional biological treatment. © 2006.

With the rapid development of the petrochemical industry in Taiwan, a significant amount of nitrogenous organic wastewater is generated. Some of this wastewater contains volatile residual monomers, such as acrylonitrile-butadienestyrene (ABS) manufacturing wastewater. Because of the high volatility of the acrylonitrile monomer, this chemical will be partly removed from the aeration system by the air stripping effect. An empirical model was developed for evaluating BOD removal by air stripping and biodegradation when the wastewater was treated in an aerobic submerged membrane bioreactor (ASMBR). The results showed that the removal of BOD from ABS wastewater by air stripping was in the range of 2-10%. These results also showed that the estimation of contribution of air stripping and biodegradation in the BOD removal in the MBR is very important in the optimum design of the MBR for ABS wastewater. © 2006.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the risk of areca/betel quid chewing with or without cigarette smoking on oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) and other oral mucosal lesions. Methods: A stratified case–control study was designed. There were in total 102 patients with oral mucosal lesions or OSF (confirmed pathologically) in the case group. OSF (n = 62) and oral mucosal lesions (n = 62) in 102 subjects were separately analyzed for men and women investigating their risks. Results: For OSF, people with both smoking and chewing habits had a statistically significant odds ratio (OR) 8.68 (95% CI = 1.87, 40.23). For the group of people with chewing habit only and without any lifetime cigarette smoking habit, the OR was 4.51 (95% CI = 1.20, 16.94). For other oral mucosal lesions, people with mixed habits and chewing only had also significant risks (OR = 8.37 and 3.95, respectively). For both OSF and other oral lesions, the ORs of mixed habits and chewing only were both higher in women than in men. Conclusions: The areca/betel quid used in Taiwan does not contain any tobacco product. The only way of areca/betel quid could synergize with any tobacco product is through cigarette smoking. A statistically significant association with oral mucosal lesions and OSF was still found in the group of areca/betel quid chewing only.

A multi-site, open-labeled clinical trial was conducted to evaluate the ease of use and acceptance of a newly developed medication cap with a memory aid (C Cap™ Compliance Cap, Allergan, Inc.) and its effect on patient compliance and intraocular pressure. One-hundred-twenty-two patients with glaucoma or ocular hypertension received their prescribed eye drops in bottles with the compliance cap. Overall, 83% of the patients found the compliance cap very easy to use. By the end of the study, significantly more patients (67%) claimed 100% compliance than prior to using the compliance cap (41%). An overall drop in intraocular pressure of 0.8 mm Hg was seen. However, in a subset of patients who reported an increase in compliance, mean intraocular pressure decreased from baseline by 1.7 mm Hg. The results of this study suggest that the compliance cap helps patients with glaucoma or ocular hypertension remember to take their medication as prescribed.