Journal of The Chinese Institute of Chemical Engineers最新文献

Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) is a non-surgical modality for treating stennosis. However, the recurrence of restenosis in 30–50% patients within 6 months is the major drawback of PTCA. The major reason of restenosis is the proliferation of the vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). Magnolol, a pure compound extracted from Magnolia officinalis, encapsulated by liposome was investigated for inhibiting the VSMCs proliferation leading to restenosis by PTCA. 1,2-Diacyl-Sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (EPC) and 1,2-dipalmitoyl-Sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC) liposomes were utilized to encapsulate the magnolol. EPC liposome obtained the higher encapsulation efficiency than DPPC lipsomes from UV–vis spectroscopy study. The inhibiting efficiency of EPC and DPPC liposomes encapsulated magnolol was higher than pure magnonol. Magnolol encapsulated by EPC liposomes had better efficiency on inhibiting VSMCs than DPPC liposome. Addition of cholesterol in liposomes could slightly enhance the encapsulation efficiency. The particles sizer analysis revealed the average particles size of EPC and DPPC liposomes encapsulated magnolol became larger than pure EPC or DPPC liposomes. From the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis, the magnolol seems to interfere with EPC and DPPC liposomes to form a homogeneous lipid bilayer.

Mathematical modeling for dynamic biological systems is a central theme in systems biology. There are still many challenges in using time-course data to obtain an inverse problem of nonlinear dynamic biological systems. In this study, a multi-objective optimization technique is introduced to determine kinetic parameter values of biochemical reaction systems. The multi-objective parameter estimation was converted into the minimax problem through the satisfying trade-off method. The aspiration value was assigned as the minimum solution to the corresponding single objective estimation. The aim of this trade-off estimation was to obtain a compromised result by simultaneously minimizing both concentration and slope error criteria. Hybrid differential evolution was applied to solve the minimax problem and to yield a global estimation.

This study provides a first attempt to seek for indigenous strains with excellent decolorization capability for dye-laden wastewater treatment from an unpolluted and likely the most biodiverse region (Lanyang Plain) in Northeast Taiwan. For isolation, serial selections were conducted by using of the fungicide nystatin and model diazo-dye C.I. reactive red 141 (RR141). Thirteen bacterial strains (NIU 01–13) with the excellent capability of azo-dye decolorization were predominantly isolated from samples of a fountain spring near Chiao-Hsi in Lanyang Plain. According to profiles of protein expression and PCR-augmented 16S rRNA gene analyses for strain identification, >98% of gene sequences in isolated strains NIU 01 and NIU 12 were similar to Aeromonas hydrophila compared to available gene sequences in the NCBI BLAST gene bank. Phase-curve profiles indicated that azo-dye decolorization was found to be non-growth associated for isolated strains. Color removal efficiency of the culture was ca. 16-fold to that of Pseudomonas luteola, indicating a promising feasibility of isolated cultures to be used for practical treatments. This point apparently suggested that exploring a biodiverse indigenous microbiota with high performance of specific characteristics (e.g., color removal) from a unpolluted region (e.g., Northeast Taiwan) for practical applications should still be possible.

Propenylbenzenes and cinnamic acid derivatives yield correspondingly substituted benzaldehydes when oxidized by lead-ruthenium pyrochlore oxide in the presence of sodium hydrochlorite as a co-oxidant at pH 11 under heterogeneous conditions. The reaction of terminal and internal aliphatic alkenes under similar conditions affords no aldehydes.

The equilibrium adsorption of three homo-oligomeric model recombinant proteins containing up to 8 poly(histidine) affinity tags on a hydroxyapatite-based immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC) adsorbent is reported in this study. The experimental data are well fitted with the three-parameter Langmuir–Freundlich isotherm model, indicating the presence of positive cooperativity for the adsorption of these model proteins. The maximum capacity and the binding affinity of the IMAC adsorbent for the model proteins are in principle dependent on the size and the number of affinity tags of proteins, respectively. The exceptionally high association constant of the octameric racemase, probably due to simultaneous multipoint attachment, make it difficult to elute racemase from the adsorbent. The adsorption isotherms under denaturing conditions are well fitted with the Langmuir model. Results of Scatchard analysis further suggest the homogeneous adsorption of the model protein subunits under denaturing conditions. The binding capacities and affinities of the adsorbent under denaturing conditions for the three unfolded protein subunits become essentially identical because the molecular size and number of poly(His) tags of the unfolded polypeptide chains of the three protein subunits are the same. The significant reduction in association constants under denaturing conditions suggests that high concentration of urea could interfere with the binding of proteins on the hydroxyapatite-based adsorbent.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the hepatoprotective activity against the ethanol-induced cytotoxicity by Antrodia cinnamomea which were produced from a large-scale fermentation. The production of biomass, extracellular polysaccharide (EPS), intracellular polysaccharide (IPS), and triterpenoids was 27.1, 1.2, 0.7, and 2.0 g/L, respectively, using a 5000-L agitated bioreactor with 3500 L of A. cinnamomea medium (ACM). The hepatoprotective effects of the water extract from the mycelia of A. cinnamomea (WAC) were evaluated in vitro using ethanol-induced cytotoxicity on AML12 hepatocytes. The cytotoxicity and the apoptosis-associated phosphatidyl serine redistribution of plasma membrane to AML12 cells induced by 300 mM ethanol were effectively reduced by adding 500 mg/L of WAC. From the compositional analysis, the major component in WAC was polysaccharides that showed a high galactose content (70.9 mg/g crude polysaccharide). Hence, the large-scale fermentation was efficient in producing cell mass and its metabolites which were able to protect hepatocytes from the damage by ethanol.

Mixture containing acetic acid and water does not form azeotrope. However, because of tangent pinch on the pure water end, it is customary in industry to add an entrainer into this mixture to aid the separation via heterogeneous azeotropic distillation. When the production scale is relatively small, it is more beneficial to run the acetic acid dehydration in batch mode. In Chien et al. [Chien, I. L., K. L. Zeng, H. Y. Chao, and J. H. Liu, “Design and Control of Acetic Acid Dehydration System via Heterogeneous Azeotropic Distillation,” Chemical Engineering Science, 59, 4547 (2004)], a suitable entrainer for acetic acid dehydration operating in continuous mode was found to be iso-butyl acetate. This paper demonstrates that although iso-butyl acetate is a good entrainer for continuous heterogeneous azeotropic distillation system, it is not suitable in heteroazeotropic batch system for acetic acid dehydration. Instead, the performances of two other acetates are compared for the suggestion of better entrainer in batch operation. An extremely simple batch operating sequence for acetic acid dehydration will be demonstrated via dynamic simulation. The proposed batch operation is very robust in terms of the particular values chosen for the operating variables. This proposed batch operation gives very similar separation performance comparing to a multivessel operation and requires less process, instrumentation, and control equipments.

The performance and stability of PTFE/Nafion/Silicate composite membranes (PNS membrane) were studied at low and medium operating temperatures with different humidity, and compared with the Nafion112 membrane at the same conditions. The PNS membrane was prepared by impregnation of PTFE/Nafion composite membrane via sol–gel process with TEOS (tetraethoxysilane). When operated cell at low temperature of 60 °C with 100% R.H. humidified H₂/O₂ gases, the PNS membrane performs better than Nafion112, with 1.0, and 0.4 W/cm², respectively. When operated cell at 60 °C with 37% R.H. humidified gases, the discharge stability of PNS membrane is stable than that of Nafion112, this is due to that silicate could hold more water in the PNS membrane at low relative humidity. While the inlet of cell gases temperature keeps at 80 °C, the cell temperature varied 90, 100, and 110 °C, with 20 psig back pressure, their relative humidities were 67, 48 and 33%, respectively. The stability of discharge current remains constant except in the case of cell temperature being as high as 110 °C. It is believed that silicate could hold water except in the case of cell temperature at 110 °C, which is resulted as the membrane dehydration. On the other hand, the Nafion112 cannot operate at low humidity with cell temperature higher than 80 °C owing to membrane dehydration. The silica modified PTFE/Nafion membrane shows the improving cell performance at lower relative humidity due to adsorbed water inside the membrane and catalyst layer.

Drug release from a coated pure drug bead in a finite volume of stirred liquid may be expediently established by inspecting the rate at a particular time. The effects of various parameters on this rate and the ranges of parameters in applications have been discussed.