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Previous studies optimized the dimensions of coaxial heat exchangers using constant mass fow rates as a boundary condition. They show a thermal optimal circular ring width of nearly zero. Hydraulically optimal is an inner to outer pipe radius ratio of 0.65 for turbulent and 0.68 for laminar fow types. In contrast, in this study, fow conditions in the circular ring are kept constant (a set of fxed Reynolds numbers) during optimization. This approach ensures fxed fow conditions and prevents inappropriately high or low mass fow rates. The optimization is carried out for three objectives: Maximum energy gain, minimum hydraulic efort and eventually optimum net-exergy balance. The optimization changes the inner pipe radius and mass fow rate but not the Reynolds number of the circular ring. The thermal calculations base on Hellström’s borehole resistance and the hydraulic optimization on individually calculated linear loss of head coefcients. Increasing the inner pipe radius results in decreased hydraulic losses in the inner pipe but increased losses in the circular ring. The net-exergy diference is a key performance indicator and combines thermal and hydraulic calculations. It is the difference between thermal exergy fux and hydraulic efort. The Reynolds number in the circular ring is instead of the mass fow rate constant during all optimizations. The result from a thermal perspective is an optimal width of the circular ring of nearly zero. The hydraulically optimal inner pipe radius is 54% of the outer pipe radius for laminar fow and 60% for turbulent fow scenarios. Net-exergetic optimization shows a predominant infuence of hydraulic losses, especially for small temperature gains. The exact result depends on the earth’s thermal properties and the fow type. Conclusively, coaxial geothermal probes’ design should focus on the hydraulic optimum and take the thermal optimum as a secondary criterion due to the dominating hydraulics.
The aim of the present study was the characterisation of three true subtilisins and one phylogenetically intermediate subtilisin from halotolerant and halophilic microorganisms. Considering the currently growing enzyme market for efficient and novel biocatalysts, data mining is a promising source for novel, as yet uncharacterised enzymes, especially from halophilic or halotolerant Bacillaceae, which offer great potential to meet industrial needs. Both halophilic bacteria Pontibacillus marinus DSM 16465ᵀ and Alkalibacillus haloalkaliphilus DSM 5271ᵀ and both halotolerant bacteria Metabacillus indicus DSM 16189 and Litchfieldia alkalitelluris DSM 16976ᵀ served as a source for the four new subtilisins SPPM, SPAH, SPMI and SPLA. The protease genes were cloned and expressed in Bacillus subtilis DB104. Purification to apparent homogeneity was achieved by ethanol precipitation, desalting and ion-exchange chromatography. Enzyme activity could be observed between pH 5.0–12.0 with an optimum for SPPM, SPMI and SPLA around pH 9.0 and for SPAH at pH 10.0. The optimal temperature for SPMI and SPLA was 70 °C and for SPPM and SPAH 55 °C and 50 °C, respectively. All proteases showed high stability towards 5% (w/v) SDS and were active even at NaCl concentrations of 5 M. The four proteases demonstrate potential for future biotechnological applications.
Amino acid-based surfactants are valuable compounds for cosmetic formulations. The chemical synthesis of acyl-amino acids is conventionally performed by the Schotten-Baumann reaction using fatty acyl chlorides, but aminoacylases have also been investigated for use in biocatalytic synthesis with free fatty acids. Aminoacylases and their properties are diverse; they belong to different peptidase families and show differences in substrate specificity and biocatalytic potential. Bacterial aminoacylases capable of synthesis have been isolated from Burkholderia, Mycolicibacterium, and Streptomyces. Although several proteases and peptidases from S. griseus have been described, no aminoacylases from this species have been identified yet. In this study, we investigated two novel enzymes produced by S. griseus DSM 40236ᵀ . We identified and cloned the respective genes and recombinantly expressed an α-aminoacylase (EC 3.5.1.14), designated SgAA, and an ε-lysine acylase (EC 3.5.1.17), designated SgELA, in S. lividans TK23. The purified aminoacylase SgAA was biochemically characterized, focusing on its hydrolytic activity to determine temperature- and pH optima and stabilities. The aminoacylase could hydrolyze various acetyl-amino acids at the Nα -position with a broad specificity regarding the sidechain. Substrates with longer acyl chains, like lauroyl-amino acids, were hydrolyzed to a lesser extent. Purified aminoacylase SgELA specific for the hydrolysis of Nε -acetyl-L-lysine was unstable and lost its enzymatic activity upon storage for a longer period but could initially be characterized. The pH optimum of SgELA was pH 8.0. While synthesis of acyl-amino acids was not observed with SgELA, SgAA catalyzed the synthesis of lauroyl-methionine.
N-Acyl-amino acids can act as mild biobased surfactants, which are used, e.g., in baby shampoos. However, their chemical synthesis needs acyl chlorides and does not meet sustainability criteria. Thus, the identification of biocatalysts to develop greener synthesis routes is desirable. We describe a novel aminoacylase from Paraburkholderia monticola DSM 100849 (PmAcy) which was identified, cloned, and evaluated for its N-acyl-amino acid synthesis potential. Soluble protein was obtained by expression in lactose autoinduction medium and co-expression of molecular chaperones GroEL/S. Strep-tag affinity purification enriched the enzyme 16-fold and yielded 15 mg pure enzyme from 100 mL of culture. Biochemical characterization revealed that PmAcy possesses beneficial traits for industrial application like high temperature and pH-stability. A heat activation of PmAcy was observed upon incubation at temperatures up to 80 °C. Hydrolytic activity of PmAcy was detected with several N-acyl-amino acids as substrates and exhibited the highest conversion rate of 773 U/mg with N-lauroyl-L-alanine at 75 °C. The enzyme preferred long-chain acyl-amino-acids and displayed hardly any activity with acetyl-amino acids. PmAcy was also capable of N-acyl-amino acid synthesis with good conversion rates. The best synthesis results were obtained with the cationic L-amino acids L-arginine and L-lysine as well as with L-leucine and L-phenylalanine. Exemplarily, L-phenylalanine was acylated with fatty acids of chain lengths from C8 to C18 with conversion rates of up to 75%. N-lauroyl-L-phenylalanine was purified by precipitation, and the structure of the reaction product was verified by LC–MS and NMR.
The aerodynamic performance of propellers strongly depends on their geometry and, consequently, on aeroelastic deformations. Knowledge of the extent of the impact is crucial for overall aircraft performance. An integrated simulation environment for steady aeroelastic propeller simulations is presented. The simulation environment is applied to determine the impact of elastic deformations on the aerodynamic propeller performance. The aerodynamic module includes a blade element momentum approach to calculate aerodynamic loads. The structural module is based on finite beam elements, according to Timoshenko theory, including moderate deflections. Several fixed-pitch propellers with thin-walled cross sections made of both isotropic and non-isotropic materials are investigated. The essential parameters are varied: diameter, disc loading, sweep, material, rotational, and flight velocity. The relative change of thrust between rigid and elastic blades quantifies the impact of propeller elasticity. Swept propellers of large diameters or low disc loadings can decrease the thrust significantly. High flight velocities and low material stiffness amplify this tendency. Performance calculations without consideration of propeller elasticity can lead to decreased efficiency. To avoid cost- and time-intense redesigns, propeller elasticity should be considered for swept planforms and low disc loadings.
The present work aimed to study the mainstream feasibility of the deammonifying sludge of side stream of municipal wastewater treatment plant (MWWTP) in Kaster, Germany. For this purpose, the deammonifying sludge available at the side stream was investigated for nitrogen (N) removal with respect to the operational factors temperature (15–30°C), pH value (6.0–8.0) and chemical oxygen demand (COD)/N ratio (≤1.5–6.0). The highest and lowest N-removal rates of 0.13 and 0.045 kg/(m³ d) are achieved at 30 and 15°C, respectively. Different conditions of pH and COD/N ratios in the SBRs of Partial nitritation/anammox (PN/A) significantly influenced both the metabolic processes and associated N-removal rates. The scientific insights gained from the current work signifies the possibility of mainstream PN/A at WWTPs. The current study forms a solid basis of operational window for the upcoming semi-technical trails to be conducted prior to the full-scale mainstream PN/A at WWTP Kaster and WWTPs globally.
Photoelectrochemical (PEC) biosensors are a rather novel type of biosensors thatutilizelighttoprovideinformationaboutthecompositionofananalyte,enablinglight-controlled multi-analyte measurements. For enzymatic PEC biosensors,amperometric detection principles are already known in the literature. In con-trast, there is only a little information on H+-ion sensitive PEC biosensors. Inthis work, we demonstrate the detection of H+ions emerged by H+-generatingenzymes, exemplarily demonstrated with penicillinase as a model enzyme on atitanium dioxide photoanode. First, we describe the pH sensitivity of the sensorand study possible photoelectrocatalytic reactions with penicillin. Second, weshow the enzymatic PEC detection of penicillin.
Improved collapse loads of thick-walled, crack containing pipes and vessels are suggested. Very deep cracks have a residual strength which is better modelled by a global limit load. In all burst tests, the ductility of pressure vessel steels was sufficiently high whereby the burst pressure could be predicted by limit analysis with no need to apply fracture mechanics. The relative prognosis error increases however, for long and deep defects due to uncertainties of geometry and strength data.
In traditional microbial biobutanol production, the solvent must be recovered during fermentation process for a sufficient space-time yield. Thermal separation is not feasible due to the boiling point of n-butanol. As an integrated and selective solid-liquid separation alternative, solvent impregnated resins (SIRs) were applied. Two polymeric resins were evaluated and an extractant screening was conducted. Vacuum application with vapor collection in fixed-bed column as bioreactor bypass was successfully implemented as butanol desorption step. In course of further increasing process economics, fermentation with renewable lignocellulosic substrates was conducted using Clostridium acetobutylicum. Utilization of SIR was shown to be a potential strategy for solvent removal from fermentation broth, while application of a bypass column allows for product removal and recovery at once.
REM sleep without atonia (RSWA) is a key feature for the diagnosis of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behaviour disorder (RBD). We introduce RBDtector, a novel open-source software to score RSWA according to established SINBAR visual scoring criteria. We assessed muscle activity of the mentalis, flexor digitorum superficialis (FDS), and anterior tibialis (AT) muscles. RSWA was scored manually as tonic, phasic, and any activity by human scorers as well as using RBDtector in 20 subjects. Subsequently, 174 subjects (72 without RBD and 102 with RBD) were analysed with RBDtector to show the algorithm’s applicability. We additionally compared RBDtector estimates to a previously published dataset. RBDtector showed robust conformity with human scorings. The highest congruency was achieved for phasic and any activity of the FDS. Combining mentalis any and FDS any, RBDtector identified RBD subjects with 100% specificity and 96% sensitivity applying a cut-off of 20.6%. Comparable performance was obtained without manual artefact removal. RBD subjects also showed muscle bouts of higher amplitude and longer duration. RBDtector provides estimates of tonic, phasic, and any activity comparable to human scorings. RBDtector, which is freely available, can help identify RBD subjects and provides reliable RSWA metrics.
Structural design analyses are conducted with the aim of verifying the exclusion of ratchetting. To this end it is important to make a clear distinction between the shakedown range and the ratchetting range. The performed experiment comprised a hollow tension specimen which was subjected to alternating axial forces, superimposed with constant moments. First, a series of uniaxial tests has been carried out in order to calibrate a bounded kinematic hardening rule. The load parameters have been selected on the basis of previous shakedown analyses with the PERMAS code using a kinematic hardening material model. It is shown that this shakedown analysis gives reasonable agreement between the experimental and the numerical results. A linear and a nonlinear kinematic hardening model of two-surface plasticity are compared in material shakedown analysis.
The growing body of political texts opens up new opportunities for rich insights into political dynamics and ideologies but also increases the workload for manual analysis. Automated speaker attribution, which detects who said what to whom in a speech event and is closely related to semantic role labeling, is an important processing step for computational text analysis. We study the potential of the large language model family Llama 2 to automate speaker attribution in German parliamentary debates from 2017-2021. We fine-tune Llama 2 with QLoRA, an efficient training strategy, and observe our approach to achieve competitive performance in the GermEval 2023 Shared Task On Speaker Attribution in German News Articles and Parliamentary Debates. Our results shed light on the capabilities of large language models in automating speaker attribution, revealing a promising avenue for computational analysis of political discourse and the development of semantic role labeling systems.
The treatment method to deactivate viable microorganisms from objects or products is termed sterilization. There are multiple forms of sterilization, each intended to be applied for a specific target, which depends on—but not limited to—the thermal, physical, and chemical stability of that target. Herein, an overview on the currently used sterilization processes in the global market is provided. Different sterilization techniques are grouped under a category that describes the method of treatment: radiation (gamma, electron beam, X-ray, and ultraviolet), thermal (dry and moist heat), and chemical (ethylene oxide, ozone, chlorine dioxide, and hydrogen peroxide). For each sterilization process, the typical process parameters as defined by regulations and the mode of antimicrobial activity are summarized. Finally, the recommended microorganisms that are used as biological indicators to validate sterilization processes in accordance with the rules that are established by various regulatory agencies are summarized.
As one class of molecular imprinted polymers (MIPs), surface imprinted polymer (SIP)-based biosensors show great potential in direct whole-bacteria detection. Micro-contact imprinting, that involves stamping the template bacteria immobilized on a substrate into a pre-polymerized polymer matrix, is the most straightforward and prominent method to obtain SIP-based biosensors. However, the major drawbacks of the method arise from the requirement for fresh template bacteria and often non-reproducible bacteria distribution on the stamp substrate. Herein, we developed a positive master stamp containing photolithographic mimics of the template bacteria (E. coli) enabling reproducible fabrication of biomimetic SIP-based biosensors without the need for the “real” bacteria cells. By using atomic force and scanning electron microscopy imaging techniques, respectively, the E. coli-capturing ability of the SIP samples was tested, and compared with non-imprinted polymer (NIP)-based samples and control SIP samples, in which the cavity geometry does not match with E. coli cells. It was revealed that the presence of the biomimetic E. coli imprints with a specifically designed geometry increases the sensor E. coli-capturing ability by an “imprinting factor” of about 3. These findings show the importance of geometry-guided physical recognition in bacterial detection using SIP-based biosensors. In addition, this imprinting strategy was employed to interdigitated electrodes and QCM (quartz crystal microbalance) chips. E. coli detection performance of the sensors was demonstrated with electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and QCM measurements with dissipation monitoring technique (QCM-D).
The most of conventional methods of air purification use the power of a fan to draw in air and pass it through a filter. The problem of bacterial contamination of inner parts of such a type of air conditioners in some cases draws attention towards alternative air-cleaning systems. Some manufacturers offer to use the ozone's bactericidal and deodorizing effects, but the wide spreading of such systems is restricted by the fact that toxic effects of ozone in respect of human beings are well known. In 2000 Sharp Inc. introduced "Plasma Cluster Ions (PCI)" air purification technology, which uses plasma discharge to generate cluster ions (I 0-14 ). This technology has been developed for those customers that are conscious about health and hygiene. In our experiments, we focused on some principal aspects of plasma-generated ions application - time-dependency and irreversibility of bactericidal action, spatial and kinetic characteristics of emitted cluster particles, their chemical targets in the microbial cells.
The Virtual Clean Room - a new tool in teaching MST process technologies University education in high-technology fields like MST is not complete without intensive laboratory sessions. Students cannot fully grasp the complexity and the special problems related to the manufacturing of microsystems without a thorough hands-on experience in a MST clean room.
This study focuses on thermoelectric elements (TEE) as an alternative for room temperature control. TEE are semi-conductor devices that can provide heating and cooling via a heat pump effect without direct noise emissions and no refrigerant use. An efficiency evaluation of the optimal operating mode is carried out for different numbers of TEE, ambient temperatures, and heating loads. The influence of an additional heat recovery unit on system efficiency and an unevenly distributed heating demand are examined. The results show that TEE can provide heat at a coefficient of performance (COP) greater than one especially for small heating demands and high ambient temperatures. The efficiency increases with the number of elements in the system and is subject to economies of scale. The best COP exceeds six at optimal operating conditions. An additional heat recovery unit proves beneficial for low ambient temperatures and systems with few TEE. It makes COPs above one possible at ambient temperatures below 0 ∘C. The effect increases efficiency by maximal 0.81 (from 1.90 to 2.71) at ambient temperature 5 K below room temperature and heating demand Q˙h=100W but is subject to diseconomies of scale. Thermoelectric technology is a valuable option for electricity-based heat supply and can provide cooling and ventilation functions. A careful system design as well as an additional heat recovery unit significantly benefits the performance. This makes TEE superior to direct current heating systems and competitive to heat pumps for small scale applications with focus on avoiding noise and harmful refrigerants.
This study addresses a proof-of-concept experiment with a biocompatible screen-printed carbon electrode deposited onto a biocompatible and biodegradable substrate, which is made of fibroin, a protein derived from silk of the Bombyx mori silkworm. To demonstrate the sensor performance, the carbon electrode is functionalized as a glucose biosensor with the enzyme glucose oxidase and encapsulated with a silicone rubber to ensure biocompatibility of the contact wires. The carbon electrode is fabricated by means of thick-film technology including a curing step to solidify the carbon paste. The influence of the curing temperature and curing time on the electrode morphology is analyzed via scanning electron microscopy. The electrochemical characterization of the glucose biosensor is performed by amperometric/voltammetric measurements of different glucose concentrations in phosphate buffer. Herein, systematic studies at applied potentials from 500 to 1200 mV to the carbon working electrode (vs the Ag/AgCl reference electrode) allow to determine the optimal working potential. Additionally, the influence of the curing parameters on the glucose sensitivity is examined over a time period of up to 361 days. The sensor shows a negligible cross-sensitivity toward ascorbic acid, noradrenaline, and adrenaline. The developed biocompatible biosensor is highly promising for future in vivo and epidermal applications.
In this work, the bioabsorbable materials, namely fibroin, polylactide acid (PLA), magnesium and magnesium oxide are investigated for their application as transient, resistive temperature detectors (RTD). For this purpose, a thin-film magnesium-based meander-like electrode is deposited onto a flexible, bioabsorbable substrate (fibroin or PLA) and encapsulated (passivated) by additional magnesium oxide layers on top and below the magnesium-based electrode. The morphology of different layered RTDs is analyzed by scanning electron microscopy. The sensor performance and lifetime of the RTD is characterized both under ambient atmospheric conditions between 30°C and 43°C, and wet tissue-like conditions with a constant temperature regime of 37°C. The latter triggers the degradation process of the magnesium-based layers. The 3-layers RTDs on a PLA substrate could achieve a lifetime of 8.5 h. These sensors also show the best sensor performance under ambient atmospheric conditions with a mean sensitivity of 0.48 Ω/°C ± 0.01 Ω/°C.
The demand of replacements for inoperable organs exceeds the amount of available organ transplants. Therefore, tissue engineering developed as a multidisciplinary field of research for autologous in-vitro organs. Such three dimensional tissue constructs request the application of a bioreactor. The UREPLACE bioreactor is used to grow cells on tubular collagen scaffolds OPTIMAIX Sponge 1 with a maximal length of 7 cm, in order to culture in vitro an adequate ureter replacement. With a rotating unit, (urothelial) cells can be placed homogeneously on the inner scaffold surface. Furthermore, a stimulation is combined with this bioreactor resulting in an orientation of muscle cells. These culturing methods request a precise control of several parameters and actuators. A combination of a LabBox and the suitable software LabVision is used to set and conduct parameters like rotation angles, velocities, pressures and other important cell culture values. The bioreactor was tested waterproof successfully. Furthermore, the temperature controlling was adjusted to 37 °C and the CO2 - concentration regulated to 5 %. Additionally, the pH step responses of several substances showed a perfect functioning of the designed flow chamber. All used software was tested and remained stable for several days.