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Pretreatment Conditions (pretreatment + condition)
Selected AbstractsSperm ultramorphology as a pathophysiological indicator of spermatogenesis in males suffering from varicoceleANDROLOGIA, Issue 3 2000M. Reichart Summary. Varicocele of spermatic veins is considered to be one of the major causes of male infertility associated with reduction of sperm quality. The pathophysiology of this condition is not yet completely understood. The aim of this study was to shed light on the pathophysiology of varicocele by identifying semen parameters, especially sperm ultramorphology, which improve following high ligation of the spermatic vein. Seventy-five males with diagnosed varicocele were included in this study. Semen parameters were assessed prospectively using light microscopy, semen biochemistry and sperm quantitative ultramorphological analysis, before high ligation and 3,9 months after high ligation. The control group consisted of twenty-five untreated varicocele patients who underwent two semen examinations within 3,9 months. No statistical difference in any of the examined variables was found between the two examinations in the control group. The treated patients exhibited a significant improvement in sperm density, progressive motility, percentage of normally formed spermatozoa, agenesis of sperm acrosome, chromatin condensation and incidence of amorphous heads compared with the pretreatment condition (P,0.01). In contradiction, no significant improvement was observed following treatment in any of the sperm tail subcellular organelles. It is concluded that varicocele may cause deleterious alterations in early spermatid head differentiation during spermiogenesis and that varicocele patients with a high incidence of sperm acrosome and nucleus malformations are appropriate candidates for varicocele correction. [source] Critical aspects of analysis of Micrococcus luteus, Neisseria cinerea, and Pseudomonas fluorescens by means of capillary electrophoresisELECTROPHORESIS, Issue 18-19 2004Verena Hoerr Abstract Within the frame of our study we investigated Microccocus luteus, Neisseria cinerea, and Pseudomonas fluorescens by means of capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE). They form chains and clusters on a different scale, which can be reflected in the electropherograms. A low buffer concentration of Tris-borate and Na2 EDTA containing a polymeric matrix of 0.0125% poly(ethylene) oxide (PEO) was used. Key factors were the standardization and optimization of CE conditions, buffer solution, and pretreatment of bacterial samples, which are not transferable to different bacterial strains, in general. The different compositions of the cell wall of on the one hand Gram-positive (M. luteus) and Gram-negative (N. cinerea) cocci and on the other hand Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacteria (P.fluorescens), are probably responsible for the different pretreatment conditions. [source] Impact of dilute acid pretreatment on the structure of bagasse for bioethanol productionINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENERGY RESEARCH, Issue 3 2010Wei-Hsin Chen Abstract Dilute acid pretreatment is a commonly used pretreatment method in the course of producing bioethanol from lignocellulosics and the structure variation of the lignocellulosics is highly related to the pretreatment process. To understand the impact of dilute acid pretreatment on the structure of bagasse, four different pretreatment conditions by varying heating time are considered where the bagasse and the pretreated materials are examined using a variety of analysis methods. The obtained results indicate that the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) is able to provide a useful insight into the recognition of lignocellulosic structure. Specifically, the peak of the TGA of the pretreated materials moves toward the low temperature region, revealing that the lignocellulosic structure is loosened. However, the characteristic of crystal structure of cellulose remains in the pretreated materials. Increasing heating time enhances the pretreatment procedure; as a result, the average particle size of the investigated materials increases with heating time. This swelling behavior may be attributed to the enlarged holes inside the particles in that the surface area decreases with increasing heating time. In addition, when the heating time is increased to a certain extent (e.g. 15,min), some fragments are found at the surface and they tend to peel off from the surface. It follows that the dilute acid pretreatments have a significant effect on the bagasse structure. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Mechanistic Insights into Copper(I)-Catalyzed Azide-Alkyne Cycloadditions using Continuous Flow ConditionsADVANCED SYNTHESIS & CATALYSIS (PREVIOUSLY: JOURNAL FUER PRAKTISCHE CHEMIE), Issue 2-3 2010Michael Fuchs Abstract The copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC, "click chemistry") was studied employing copper-in-charcoal (Cu/C) and a variety of copper metal sources as "heterogeneous" catalysts. The type and pretreatment conditions of the different copper sources on the CuAAC were investigated. In addition, the effect of copper leaching from the catalyst over time and in dependence on the reaction mixture composition was studied by ICP-MS analysis in the continuous flow mode. These investigations confirm a "homogeneous" mechanism and suggest surface layer copper(I) oxide as the catalytically active species in CuAAC chemistry involving zerovalent copper metal. [source] Fermentation of enzymatic hydrolysates from olive stones by Pachysolen tannophilusJOURNAL OF CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY & BIOTECHNOLOGY, Issue 3 2009Manuel Cuevas Abstract BACKGROUND: Olive stones were pretreated with liquid hot water (LHW or autohydrolysis) at maximum temperatures between 175 and 225 °C (severity factors, logR0, between 2.73 and 4.39) to be subjected (both liquid and solid components) afterwards to enzymatic hydrolysis with cellulases from Trichoderma viride. Ethanol fermentation of hydrolysates was performed with the non-traditional yeast Pachysolen tannophilus ATCC 32691. RESULTS: After the enzymatic step, yields of hemicellulose solubilization reached 100%, while the cellulose was only partially hydrolysed (23%, logR0 = 4.39). The maximum yields in total reducing sugars and acetic acid, at the upper end of the severity range, was close to 0.25 and 0.04 g g,1 dry stone, respectively. During the fermentation stage, the increase in R0 reduced the maximum specific growth rate, biomass productivity, and overall biomass yield. The overall yields of ethanol and xylitol ranged, respectively, from 0.18 to 0.25 g g,1 and from 0.01 to 0.13 g g,1. CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrate the possibility of producing ethanol from olive stones, making use of the cellulose and hemicellulose fraction of the waste. It was confirmed that the overall yield in xylitol strongly depended on severity factor, while the overall yield in ethanol remained practically constant for all the pretreatment conditions tested. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry [source] OPTIMIZATION OF PRE-FRY DRYING OF YAM SLICES USING RESPONSE SURFACE METHODOLOGYJOURNAL OF FOOD PROCESS ENGINEERING, Issue 4 2010OLAJIDE PHILIP SOBUKOLA ABSTRACT The effect of convective hot-air drying pretreatment and frying time at a frying temperature of 170 ± 1C on moisture and oil contents, breaking force (crispness) and color parameters of yam chips was investigated. Response surface methodology technique was used to develop models for the responses as a result of variation in levels of drying temperature (60,80C), drying time (1,5°min) and frying time (2,6°min). Drying pretreatment had a significant effect on oil and moisture contents, breaking force and color parameters of yam chips, with water removal exhibiting a typical drying profile. Response surface regression analysis shows that responses were significantly (P < 0.05) correlated with drying temperature and time and frying time. The optimum pre-fry drying condition observed was a drying temperature of 70,75C for about 3,4 min while frying for 4,5 min. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS Deep-fat frying is a very important cooking method and a lot of effort has been devoted to manufacturing fried products with lower oil content and acceptable quality parameters. The information provided in this work will be very useful in manufacturing fried yam chips of acceptable quality attributes through the combination of drying pretreatment conditions. The result is very useful in considering different processing variables and responses at the same time as compared with single factor experiment common in the literature. [source] Optimizing acidic methanolysis of poly(3-hydroxyalkanoates) in gas chromatography analysisASIA-PACIFIC JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, Issue 4 2009Chi-Wei Lo Abstract This work was undertaken to develop an improved gas chromatography (GC) analysis of poly (3-hydroxyalkanoate) (PHA) quantification method based on acidic methanolysis. This is achieved by investigating the kinetics of acidic hydrolysis of PHAs with sulfuric acid in the chloroform/aqueous solution to identify suitable hydrolytic pretreatment conditions for quantitative analysis of PHAs. The target parameters included sulfuric acid concentration, salt (NaCl) addition, kind of PHAs (commercial products of poly-3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB), poly(3-hydroxybutyrate- co -3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV-8%) and poly(3-hydroxybutyrate- co -3-hydroxyhexanoate) (PHBHHx-3.8% and-10.5%), as well as the type of PHA-producing microorganisms (Cupriavidus taiwanensis 184 and Burkholderia sp. PTU9). These results show that esters would preferentially accumulate in the organic phase when NaCl was added in the two-phase system, thereby enhancing the accuracy of GC analysis. Decomposition efficiency of different types of PHAs was found to be dependent on sulfuric acid concentration, such as 1% H2SO4 was favorable for PHB decomposition, while 5 and 7% H2SO4 should be used to decompose PHBV and PHBHHx. Copyright © 2009 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Effect of varying feedstock,pretreatment chemistry combinations on the formation and accumulation of potentially inhibitory degradation products in biomass hydrolysatesBIOTECHNOLOGY & BIOENGINEERING, Issue 3 2010Bowen Du Abstract A variety of potentially inhibitory degradation products are produced during pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass. Qualitative and quantitative interrogation of pretreatment hydrolysates is paramount to identifying potential correlations between pretreatment chemistries and microbial inhibition in downstream bioconversion processes. In the present study, corn stover, poplar, and pine feedstocks were pretreated under eight different chemical conditions, which are representative of leading pretreatment processes. Pretreatment processes included: 0.7% H2SO4, 0.07% H2SO4, liquid hot water, neutral buffer solution, aqueous ammonia, lime, lime with oxygen pressurization, and wet oxidation. Forty lignocellulosic degradation products resulting from pretreatment were analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography in combination with UV spectroscopy or tandem mass spectrometry detection (HPLC-PDA-MS/MS) and ion chromatography (IC). Of these compounds, several have been reported to be inhibitory, including furfural, hydroxymethyl furfural, ferulic acid, 3,4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde, syringic acid among others. Formation and accumulation of monitored compounds in hydrolysates is demonstrated to be a function of both the feedstock and pretreatment conditions utilized. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2010;107: 430,440. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Short-term lime pretreatment of poplar woodBIOTECHNOLOGY PROGRESS, Issue 2 2009Rocio Sierra Abstract Short-term lime pretreatment uses lime and high-pressure oxygen to significantly increase the digestibility of poplar wood. When the treated poplar wood was enzymatically hydrolyzed, glucan and xylan were converted to glucose and xylose, respectively. To calculate product yields from raw biomass, these sugars were expressed as equivalent glucan and xylan. To recommend pretreatment conditions, the single criterion was the maximum overall glucan and xylan yields using a cellulase loading of 15 FPU/g glucan in raw biomass. On this basis, the recommended conditions for short-term lime pretreatment of poplar wood follow: (1) 2 h, 140°C, 21.7 bar absolute and (2) 2 h, 160°C, and 14.8 bar absolute. In these two cases, the reactivity was nearly identical, thus the selected condition depends on the economic trade off between pressure and temperature. Considering glucose and xylose and their oligomers produced during 72 h of enzymatic hydrolysis, the overall yields attained under these recommended conditions follow: (1) 95.5 g glucan/100 g of glucan in raw biomass and 73.1 g xylan/100 g xylan in raw biomass and (2) 94.2 g glucan/100 g glucan in raw biomass and 73.2 g xylan/100 g xylan in raw biomass. The yields improved by increasing the enzyme loading. An optimal enzyme cocktail was identified as 67% cellulase, 12% ,-glucosidase, and 24% xylanase (mass of protein basis) with cellulase activity of 15 FPU/g glucan in raw biomass and total enzyme loading of 51 mg protein/g glucan in raw biomass. Ball milling the lime-treated poplar wood allowed for 100% conversion of glucan in 120 h with a cellulase loading of only 10 FPU/g glucan in raw biomass. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 2009 [source] Comparative sugar recovery and fermentation data following pretreatment of poplar wood by leading technologiesBIOTECHNOLOGY PROGRESS, Issue 2 2009Charles E. Wyman Abstract Through a Biomass Refining Consortium for Applied Fundamentals and Innovation among Auburn University, Dartmouth College, Michigan State University, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Purdue University, Texas A&M University, the University of British Columbia, and the University of California at Riverside, leading pretreatment technologies based on ammonia fiber expansion, aqueous ammonia recycle, dilute sulfuric acid, lime, neutral pH, and sulfur dioxide were applied to a single source of poplar wood, and the remaining solids from each technology were hydrolyzed to sugars using the same enzymes. Identical analytical methods and a consistent material balance methodology were employed to develop comparative performance data for each combination of pretreatment and enzymes. Overall, compared to data with corn stover employed previously, the results showed that poplar was more recalcitrant to conversion to sugars and that sugar yields from the combined operations of pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis varied more among pretreatments. However, application of more severe pretreatment conditions gave good yields from sulfur dioxide and lime, and a recombinant yeast strain fermented the mixed stream of glucose and xylose sugars released by enzymatic hydrolysis of water washed solids from all pretreatments to ethanol with similarly high yields. An Agricultural and Industrial Advisory Board followed progress and helped steer the research to meet scientific and commercial needs. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 2009 [source] Enzymatic digestion of liquid hot water pretreated hybrid poplarBIOTECHNOLOGY PROGRESS, Issue 2 2009Youngmi Kim Abstract Liquid hot (LHW) water pretreatment (LHW) of lignocellulosic material enhances enzymatic conversion of cellulose to glucose by solubilizing hemicellulose fraction of the biomass, while leaving the cellulose more reactive and accessible to cellulase enzymes. Within the range of pretreatment conditions tested in this study, the optimized LHW pretreatment conditions for a 15% (wt/vol) slurry of hybrid poplar were found to be 200oC, 10 min, which resulted in the highest fermentable sugar yield with minimal formation of sugar decomposition products during the pretreatment. The LHW pretreatment solubilized 62% of hemicellulose as soluble oligomers. Hot-washing of the pretreated poplar slurry increased the efficiency of hydrolysis by doubling the yield of glucose for a given enzyme dose. The 15% (wt/vol) slurry of hybrid poplar, pretreated at the optimal conditions and hot-washed, resulted in 54% glucose yield by 15 FPU cellulase per gram glucan after 120 h. The hydrolysate contained 56 g/L glucose and 12 g/L xylose. The effect of cellulase loading on the enzymatic digestibility of the pretreated poplar is also reported. Total monomeric sugar yield (glucose and xylose) reached 67% after 72 h of hydrolysis when 40 FPU cellulase per gram glucan were used. An overall mass balance of the poplar-to-ethanol process was established based on the experimentally determined composition and hydrolysis efficiencies of the liquid hot water pretreated poplar. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 2009 [source] Enzymatic digestibility and pretreatment degradation products of AFEX-treated hardwoods (Populus nigra)BIOTECHNOLOGY PROGRESS, Issue 2 2009Venkatesh Balan Abstract There is a growing need to find alternatives to crude oil as the primary feed stock for the chemicals and fuel industry and ethanol has been demonstrated to be a viable alternative. Among the various feed stocks for producing ethanol, poplar (Populus nigra × Populus maximowiczii) is considered to have great potential as a biorefinery feedstock in the United States, due to their widespread availability and good productivity in several parts of the country. We have optimized AFEX pretreatment conditions (180°C, 2:1 ammonia to biomass loading, 233% moisture, 30 minutes residence time) and by using various combinations of enzymes (commercical celluloses and xylanases) to achieve high glucan and xylan conversion (93 and 65%, respectively). We have also identified and quantified several important degradation products formed during AFEX using liquid chromatography followed by mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). As a part of degradation product analysis, we have also quantified oligosaccharides in the AFEX water wash extracts by acid hydrolysis. It is interesting to note that corn stover (C4 grass) can be pretreated effectively using mild AFEX pretreatment conditions, while on the other hand hardwood poplar requires much harsher AFEX conditions to obtain equivalent sugar yields upon enzymatic hydrolysis. Comparing corn stover and poplar, we conclude that pretreatment severity and enzymatic hydrolysis efficiency are dictated to a large extent by lignin carbohydrate complexes and arabinoxylan cross-linkages for AFEX. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 2009 [source] Pretreatment of cotton with poly(vinylamine chloride) for salt-free dyeing with reactive dyesCOLORATION TECHNOLOGY, Issue 4 2005Wei Ma Poly(vinylamine chloride) has been investigated as a pretreatment for the salt-free dyeing of cotton with reactive dyes. Dye fixation was found to be much higher than by conventional dyeing without pretreatment, even in the presence of a large amount of salt. The influence of pretreatment conditions on dye fixation, such as pad,bake variables and the concentration of poly(vinylamine chloride), has been studied. The dyeing behaviour of CI Reactive Red 2 on pretreated cotton was examined and found to follow a Langmuir-type adsorption curve. Dyed cotton pretreated with poly(vinylamine chloride) showed excellent wash fastness and good rub fastness. It is concluded that poly(vinylamine chloride) is effective as a pretreatment for salt-free dyeing with reactive dyes. [source] Chemical modification of cotton to improve fibre dyeabilityCOLORATION TECHNOLOGY, Issue 4 2002Huitu Wang A new fibre-reactive quaternary compound containing an acrylamide residue was synthesised and used as a cotton modification reagent. The agent was applied to cotton fabrics using a pad-bake process. It was found that the treated fibre could be dyed with reactive dyes without the addition of salt or alkali. The reactive dyes were almost completely exhausted and showed a high degree of covalent bonding with the pretreated cellulose. The effect of varying the pretreatment conditions was investigated and the optimum conditions for pretreating and dyeing were established. [source] | |||||||||||||