A Review of Pressure Drop and Mixing Characteristics in Passive Mixers Involving Miscible Liquids.

The present review focuses on the recent studies carried out in passive micromixers for understanding the hydrodynamics and transport phenomena of miscible liquid-liquid (LL) systems in terms of pressure drop and mixing indices. First, the passive micromixers have been categorized based on the type of complexity in shape, size, and configuration. It is observed that the use of different aspect ratios of the microchannel width, presence of obstructions, flow and operating conditions, and fluid properties majorly affect the mixing characteristics and pressure drop in passive micromixers. A regime map for the micromixer selection based on optimization of mixing index (MI) and pressure drop has been identified based on the literature data for the Reynolds number (Re) range (1 ≤ Re ≤ 100). The map comprehensively summarizes the favorable, moderately favorable, or non-operable regimes of a micromixer. Further, regions for special applications of complex micromixer shapes and micromixers operating at low Re have been identified. Similarly, the operable limits for a micromixer based on pressure drop for Re range 0.1 < Re < 100,000 have been identified. A comparison of measured pressure drop with fundamentally derived analytical expressions show that Category 3 and 4 micromixers mostly have higher pressure drops, except for a few efficient ones. An MI regime map comprising diffusion, chaotic advection, and mixed advection-dominated zones has also been devised. An empirical correlation for pressure drop as a function of Reynolds number has been developed and a corresponding friction factor has been obtained. Predictions on heat and mass transfer based on analogies in micromixers have also been proposed.

Acoustic cavitation for the process intensification of biological oxidation of CETP effluent containing mainly pharmaceutical compounds: Understanding into effect of parameters and toxicity analysis.

The current work investigates the efficacy of acoustic cavitation (AC) based pretreatment as a process intensification method for improving the conventional biological oxidation (BO) treatment of the effluent from common effluent treatment plant (CETP) mainly containing pharmaceutical compounds. The effluent acclimatized with cow dung-based sludge was utilized for the aerobic oxidation with an optimum condition of 1:3 ratio of sludge to effluent and 6 h as duration. COD reduction of 19.58% was achieved with the conventional biological oxidation, which was demonstrated to be improved by incorporating acoustic cavitation-based pretreatment approaches under optimized conditions of 125 W and 70% duty cycle for only AC as well as oxidant loadings as 1000 mg/L for H2O2, 250 mg/L Fe(II) with 1000 mg/L H2O2 for Fenton, 1000 mg/L for KPS and 0.5 L/min for the O3 during the combination approaches. The improved COD reduction after the use of pretreatment approaches followed by the BO of 6 h duration was 29.26%, 72.42%, 85.47%, 45.68% and 69.26% for the AC, AC + H2O2, AC + Fenton, AC + KPS and AC + O3 based approaches respectively. The toxicity assay of the effluent before and after every pretreatment approach using bacterial strains ofStaphylococcus aureusandPseudomonas aeruginosaensured the biodegradability of the treated effluent as no toxic intermediates could be seen. Overall, the present work elucidated the effectiveness of acoustic cavitation-based pretreatment approaches for the improvement of conventional BO of CETP effluent.

Non-thermal, energy efficient hydrodynamic cavitation for food processing, process intensification and extraction of natural bioactives: A review.

Hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) is the process of bubbles formation, expansion, and violent collapse, which results in the generation of high pressures in the order of 100-5000 bar and temperatures in the range of 727-9727 °C for just a fraction of seconds. Increasing consumer demand for high-quality foods with higher nutritive values and fresh-like sensory attributes, food processors, scientists, and process engineers are pushed to develop innovative and effective non-thermal methods as an alternative to conventional heat treatments. Hydrodynamic cavitation can play a significant role in non-thermal food processing as it has the potential to destroy microbes and reduce enzyme activity while retaining essential nutritional and physicochemical properties. As hydrodynamic cavitation occurs in a flowing liquid, there is a decrease in local pressure followed by its recovery; hence it can be used for liquid foods. It can also be used to create stable emulsions and homogenize food constituents. Moreover, this technology can extract food constituents such as polyphenols, essential oils, pigments, etc., via biomass pretreatment, cell disruption for selective enzyme release, waste valorization, and beer brewing. Other applications related to food production include water treatment, biodiesel, and biogas production. The present review discusses the application of HC in the preservation, processing, and quality improvement of food and other related applications. The reviewed examples in this paper demonstrate the potential of hydrodynamic cavitation with further expansion toward the scaling up, which looks at commercialization as a driving force.

Coronavirus: a comparative analysis of detection technologies in the wake of emerging variants.

An outbreak of the coronavirus disease caused by a novel pathogen created havoc and continues to affect the entire world. As the pandemic progressed, the scientific community was faced by the limitations of existing diagnostic methods. In this review, we have compared the existing diagnostic techniques such as reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), antigen and antibody detection, computed tomography scan, etc. and techniques in the research phase like microarray, artificial intelligence, and detection using novel materials; on the prospect of sample preparation, detection procedure (qualitative/quantitative), detection time, screening efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and ability to detect different variants. A detailed comparison of different techniques showed that RT-PCR is still the most widely used and accepted coronavirus detection method despite certain limitations (single gene targeting- in context to mutations). New methods with similar efficiency that could overcome the limitations of RT-PCR may increase the speed, simplicity, and affordability of diagnosis. In addition to existing devices, we have also discussed diagnostic devices in the research phase showing high potential for clinical use. Our approach would be of enormous benefit in selecting a diagnostic device under a given scenario, which would ultimately help in controlling the current pandemic caused by the coronavirus, which is still far from over with new variants emerging.

The genome sequence of the Neotropical brown stink bug, Euschistus heros provides insights into population structure, demographic history and signatures of adaptation.

The Neotropical brown stink bug, Euschistus heros, is a major pest of soybean in South America. The importance of E. heros as a pest has grown significantly in recent times due to increases in its abundance and range, and the evolution of insecticide resistance. Recent work has begun to examine the genetic diversity, population structure, and genetic mechanisms of insecticide resistance in E. heros. However, to date, investigation of these topics has been hampered by a lack of genomic resources for this species. Here we address this need by assembling a high-quality draft genome for E. heros. We used a combination of short and long read sequencing to assemble an E. heros genome of 1.4 Gb comprising 906 contigs with a contig N50 of 3.5 MB. We leveraged this new genomic resource, in combination with genotyping by sequencing, to explore genetic diversity in populations of this species in Brazil and identify genetic loci in the genome which are under selection. Our genome-wide analyses, confirm that there are two populations of E. heros co-occurring in different geographical regions in Brazil, and that, in certain regions of the country these populations are hybridizing. We identify several regions of the genome as under selection, including markers associated with putative insecticide resistance genes. Taken together, the new genomic resources generated in this study will accelerate research into fundamental aspects of stinkbug biology and applied aspects relating to the sustainable control of a highly damaging crop pest.

Progress and prospective of heterogeneous catalysts for H2O2 production via anthraquinone process.

This paper reviews the improvement in the field of catalytic hydrogenation of 2-ethylanthraquinone to 2-ethylanthrahydroquinone for the successful production of hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide is being used in almost all industrial areas, particularly in the chemical industry and in environmental protection, as the most promising oxidant for cleaner and environmentally safer processes. A variety of hydrogenation catalysts have been introduced for hydrogenation of 2-ethylanthraquinone in the production of hydrogen peroxide via anthraquinone (AQ) process. The aim of the present study is to describe the catalysts used in the hydrogenation of 2-ethylanthraquinone and the reaction mechanism involved with different catalytic systems. The hydrogenation of 2-ethylanthraquinone using metals, alloy, bimetallic composite, and supported metal catalyst with the structural modifications has been incorporated for the production of hydrogen peroxide. The comprehensive comparison reveals that the supported metal catalysts required lesser catalyst amount, produced lower AQ decay, and provided higher catalyst activity and selectivity. Furthermore, the replacement of conventional catalysts by metal and metal alloy-supported catalyst rises as a hydrogenation trend, enhancing by several times the catalytic performance.

A review on pesticide degradation from irrigation water and techno-economic feasibility of treatment technologies.

The present study focuses and assures the need for pesticide degradation from various water bodies used for irrigation and the available technologies to treat them effectively. A thorough review of the literature is done on pesticide residues present in various irrigation water sources like rivers, groundwater, river sediments, and soil which signifies the existence of pesticides in the ecosystem. This indicates the severity of water pollution due to various sources around and their adverse effect on the ecosystem. However, several technologies are available to treat these pesticides based on the classification. A Cross comparison between the technologies is done to determine the efficient technology for the treatment of irrigation water.

Comparison of acoustic and hydrodynamic cavitation based hybrid AOPs for COD reduction of commercial effluent from CETP.

The present work investigates the treatment of commercial effluent obtained from Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETP) using acoustic cavitation (AC) and hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) based hybrid AOPs. Comparison of different hybrid AOPs viz. H2O2, Fe2+/H2O2, Fe2+/H2O2/Air, Fe2+/H2O2/S2O82- and Fe2+/H2O2/S2O82-/Air in combination with both AC and HC has been performed in terms of extent of chemical oxygen demand (COD) reduction and kinetic rate constants. The best results of COD reduction as 95.2% and 97.28% were obtained for AC/Fe2+/H2O2/Air and HC/Fe2+/H2O2/Air systems respectively at Fe2+/H2O2 ratio of 0.1 and pH of 2 within 60 min of treatment under conditions of ultrasonic power dissipation as 150 W, inlet pressure for HC as 4 bar (as applicable depending on process) and temperature of 30 ± 2 °C. Slightly lower efficacy was established for the combination approach involving AC or HC coupled with Fe2+-activated S2O82- and H2O2 yielding COD reduction of 82.9% and 86.93% for the AC/Fe2+/H2O2/S2O82-/Air and HC/Fe2+/H2O2/S2O82-/Air systems respectively at Fe2+/H2O2/S2O82- ratio of 1:40:17.5. Cost estimation on the basis of cavitational yield performed on the AC and HC based treatment systems revealed economical nature of HC based treatment. Kinetic studies were also performed by fitting the experimental data with pseudo first order kinetic model (PFOKM), generalized kinetic model (GKM) and Behnajady-Modirshahla-Ghanbery kinetic model (BMGKM). It was demonstrated that GKM provided best fitting for all the experiments whereas BMGKM was most suitable for Fenton based reactions. It was clearly established that complex CETP effluent can be effectively treated using the combined approaches based on HC with potential for larger scale operation.

Production of biologically active peptides by hydrolysis of whey protein isolates using hydrodynamic cavitation.

Whey protein isolate (WPI) hydrolysates have higher solubility in aqueous phase and enhanced biological properties. Hydrolysis of WPI was optimized using operating pressure (ΔP, bar), number of passes (N), and WPI concentration (C, %) as deciding parameters in hydrodynamic cavitation treatment. The optimum conditions for generation of WPI hydrolysate with full factorial design were 8 bar, 28 passes, and 4.5% WPI concentration yielding 32.69 ± 1.22 mg/mL soluble proteins. WPI hydrolysate showed alterations in binding capacity over WPI. SDS-PAGE and particle size analysis confirmed the hydrolysis of WPI. Spectroscopic, thermal and crystallinity analyses showed typical properties of proteins with slight variations after hydrodynamic cavitation treatment. ABTS, DPPH and FRAP assays of WPI hydrolysate showed 7-66, 9-149, and 0.038-0.272 µmol/mL GAE at 1-10, 0.25-4, and 3-30 mg/mL concentration, respectively. Further, a considerable enhancement in fresh weight, chlorophyll, carotenoids, reducing sugars, total soluble sugars, soluble proteins content and total phenolics content was noticed during in vitro growth of sugarcane in WPI hydrolysate supplemented medium at 50-200 mg/L concentration over the control. The process cost (INR/kg) to hydrolyze WPI was also calculated.

One pot clarification and debittering of grapefruit juice using co-immobilized enzymes@chitosanMNPs.

In the present work, enzymes pectinase and naringinase were simultaneously co-immobilized on an eco-friendly chitosan coated magnetic nanoparticles (chitosanMNPs) by cross-linking using chitosan as a macro-molecular cross-linker. The maximum activity recovery of both enzymes in the co-immobilized form was obtained at chitosanMNPs to enzymes ratio of 1:3, 3% cross-linker concentration and 150 min cross-linking time. The synthesized MNPs before and after co-immobilization were characterized using different techniques. The prepared biocatalyst was found spherical with an average size below 200 nm and showed supermagnetic property with saturation magnetization of 38.28 emu/g. The optimum pH and temperature of both enzymes in co-immobilized form was found at 5.5 and 65 °C. The prepared biocatalyst exhibited an improved thermal stability with 1.8-fold increase in the half-life. The secondary structural analysis revealed that, prepared co-immobilized biocatalyst undergone changes in the conformational and structural rigidity due to macro-molecular cross-linker. The co-immobilized biocatalysts were evaluated for one pot clarification and debittering of grapefruit juice and found ~52% reduction in turbidity and ~85% reduction in the naringin content. The co-immobilized enzymes were recycled up to 7th cycle and can be easily stored at room temperature for 30 days retaining up to 64% and 86% residual activities respectively.

F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography in conjunctival melanoma with recurrence.

Ocular melanoma is classified under the category of noncutaneous melanomas. Noncutaneous melanomas are relatively rare. Ocular melanoma commonly arises from choroid. Conjunctival melanoma is a rare but potentially lethal form of ocular melanoma. It can invade locally. Systemic spread is seen in up to 25% of cases, often associated with lymph node involvement. Metastatic sites include the lungs, liver, gastrointestinal tract, and the central nervous system. F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (F-18 FDG PET-CT) scanning is indicated for staging cutaneous melanoma patients. However, few studies have evaluated its role in the management of conjunctival melanoma. This case highlights the use of F-18 FDG PET/CT for imaging, preoperative staging, and evaluation for metastasis in conjunctival melanoma.

Laccase immobilized peroxidase mimicking magnetic metal organic frameworks for industrial dye degradation.

In the present work, laccase was successfully immobilized in peroxidase mimicking magnetic metal organic frameworks (MMOFs) within 30 min using a facile approach. The integration of magnetic nanoparticles during synthesis significantly eases the separation of prepared biocatalyst using an external magnet. The immobilization of laccase was confirmed using different characterization techniques. The laccase@MMOFs found spherical in nature with an average particle size below 100 nm. The synthesized laccase embedded framework exhibits supermagnetic property with the saturation magnetization (Ms) of 34.12 emu/gm. The prepared bio-metallic frameworks maintain high surface area and thermal stability. The laccase@MMOFs was successfully exploited for the degradation of industrial dyes in batch and continuous mode with an average degradation efficiency of 95%. The prepared laccase structure had an excellent recyclability retaining upto 89% residual activity upto 10th cycle and can be stored at room temperature upto 30 days without any significant loss of activity.

Assessment of insecticidal effects and selectivity of CAPA-PK peptide analogues against the peach-potato aphid and four beneficial insects following topical exposure.

BACKGROUND: Insect Capability neuropeptides (CAP2b/CAPA-PKs) play a critical role in modulating different physiologies and behavior in insects. In a previous proof-of-concept study, the CAP2b analogues 1895 (2Abf-Suc-FGPRLamide) and 2129 (2Abf-Suc-ATPRIamide) were reported to reduce aphid fitness when administered by injection. In the current study, the insecticidal efficacy of 1895 and 2129 on the peach potato aphid Myzus persicae was analyzed by topical application, simulating a spray application scenario in the field. Additionally, the selectivity of the tested analogues was evaluated against a selection of beneficial insects, namely three natural enemies (Adalia bipunctata, Chrysoperla carnea and Nasonia vitripennis) and a pollinator (Bombus terrestris). RESULTS: Within 3-5 days post topical exposure of aphids to 1895, higher mortality (33%) was observed, as was the case for the treatment with 2129 (17%) and the mixture of 1895 + 2129 (47%) compared to the control (3%). 1895 and the mix 1895 + 2129 showed the strongest and comparable insecticidal effects. Additionally, surviving aphids treated with 1895 showed a reduction in total lifetime reproduction (GRR) of 30%, 19% with 2129 and 39% with the mix 1895 + 2129. Of interest from a biosafety perspective is that by using the same delivery method and dose, no significant effects on survival, weight increase and food intake was observed for the representative natural enemies and the pollinator. CONCLUSION: This study highlights the potential of exploiting CAP2b analogues such as 1895 (core structure FGPRL) as aphicides. Additionally, the CAP2b analogues used in this study were selective as they showed no effects when applied on four representative beneficial insects.

Ultrasound assisted methanolysis of polycarbonate at room temperature.

The present work demonstrates an attempt to depolymerize Polycarbonate (PC) at room temperature, which otherwise requires extreme temperature and pressure conditions. It was achieved by the use of ultrasound to intensify the methanolysis reaction of PC. Use of ultrasound showed a significant enhancement in the rate of methanolysis which leads to a reduction in the reaction time from 45 min to 15 min to depolymerize 5 g PC at 30 °C by using 0.1 g NaOH and THF to methanol ratio equaling 3 (w/w). Bubble dynamic study also leads to a conclusion that the highest cavitational enhancement can be achieved at THF to methanol ratio equaling 3 (w/w) which might be due to the fact that this solvent mixture exhibits the least viscosity at this composition. The effect of various parameters such as temperature, NaOH concentration, ultrasonic input power and solvent composition were investigated. The products obtained were bisphenol-A(BPA) and dimethyl carbonate (DMC) which were characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and gas chromatography (GC) respectively.

Evolutionary trends of neuropeptide signaling in beetles - A comparative analysis of Coleopteran transcriptomic and genomic data.

Insects employ neuropeptides to regulate their growth & development, behaviour, metabolism and their internal milieu. At least 50 neuropeptides are known to date, with some ancestral to the insects and others more specific to particular taxa. In order to understand the evolution and essentiality of neuropeptides, we data mined publicly available high quality genomic or transcriptomic data for 31 species of the largest insect Order, the Coleoptera, chosen to represent the superfamilies' of the Adephaga and Polyphaga. The resulting neuropeptide distributions were compared against the habitats, lifestyle and other parameters. Around half of the neuropeptide families were represented across the Coleoptera, suggesting essentiality or at least continuing utility. However, the remaining families showed patterns of loss that did not correlate with any obvious life history parameter, suggesting that these neuropeptides are no longer required for the Coleopteran lifestyle. This may perhaps indicate a decreasing reliance on neuropeptide signaling in insects.

New views on the Malpighian tubule from post-genomic technologies.

Successful insect diversification depends at least in part on the ability to osmoregulate successfully across a broad range of ecological niches. First described in the 17th Century, and Malpighian tubules have been studied physiologically for 70 years. However, our understanding has been revolutionized by the advent of genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics. Such technologies are natural partners with (though do not obligatorily require) model organisms and transgenic technologies. This review describes the recent impact of multi-omic technologies on our understanding or renal function and control in insects.

Synergistic effect of ultrasonication and co-immobilized enzymes on tomato peels for lycopene extraction.

In the present work, tomato peels were pre-treated using combination of ultrasound and enzyme co-immobilized amino-functionalized magnetic nanoparticles (AMNPs) for the efficient release of lycopene. To achieve maximum activity of enzymes in the co-immobilized form, optimization of several parameters were carried out. Moreover, the influence of ultrasound and enzyme co-immobilized magnetic nanoparticles on lycopene release was studied. Maximum lycopene release was obtained at 3% (w/w) enzyme co-immobilized AMNPs, pH 5.0, temperature of 50 °C, at 10 W ultrasound power and 20 min incubation time. After enzymatic pre-treatment, lycopene from the pre-treated mixture was extracted and separated using tri-solvent extraction method. Maximum recovery of lycopene using solvent extraction was obtained at 50 °C, 90 min of incubation time and agitation speed of 150 rpm. The presence of lycopene in the extract was confirmed by FT-IR, UV-vis spectroscopy and HPLC analysis. The co-immobilized bio-catalyst showed excellent reusability giving more than 50% lycopene yield even after 6th cycles of reuse.

Coordinated RNA-Seq and peptidomics identify neuropeptides and G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) in the large pine weevil Hylobius abietis, a major forestry pest.

Hylobius abietis (Linnaeus), or large pine weevil (Coleoptera, Curculionidae), is a pest of European coniferous forests. In order to gain understanding of the functional physiology of this species, we have assembled a de novo transcriptome of H. abietis, from sequence data obtained by Next Generation Sequencing. In particular, we have identified genes encoding neuropeptides, peptide hormones and their putative G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) to gain insights into neuropeptide-modulated processes. The transcriptome was assembled de novo from pooled paired-end, sequence reads obtained from RNA from whole adults, gut and central nervous system tissue samples. Data analysis was performed on the transcripts obtained from the assembly including, annotation, gene ontology and functional assignment as well as transcriptome completeness assessment and KEGG pathway analysis. Pipelines were created using Bioinformatics tools and techniques for prediction and identification of neuropeptides and neuropeptide receptors. Peptidomic analysis was also carried out using a combination of MALDI-TOF as well as Q-Exactive Orbitrap mass spectrometry to confirm the identified neuropeptide. 41 putative neuropeptide families were identified in H. abietis, including Adipokinetic hormone (AKH), CAPA and DH31. Neuropeptide F, which has not been yet identified in the model beetle T. castaneum, was identified. Additionally, 24 putative neuropeptide and 9 leucine-rich repeat containing G protein coupled receptor-encoding transcripts were determined using both alignment as well as non-alignment methods. This information, submitted to the NCBI sequence read archive repository (SRA accession: SRP133355), can now be used to inform understanding of neuropeptide-modulated physiology and behaviour in H. abietis; and to develop specific neuropeptide-based tools for H. abietis control.

Hematoma in Urinary Bladder Masquerading as Neoplastic Mass.

The most common reason for intraluminal urinary bladder hematoma is trauma. However in gynecological and pelvic malignancies, the pelvic irradiation can affect non targeted organs resulting in urogenital complications like hematoma. Small size hematoma can be easily diagnosed in ultrasound. Large hematoma can mimic as neoplastic mass in imaging modalities. We present here an intresting image of intraluminal urinary bladder mass, where FDG PET CT was helpful to diagnose it as a non neoplastic mass.

A review on heterogeneous sonocatalyst for treatment of organic pollutants in aqueous phase based on catalytic mechanism.

Heterogeneous sonocatalysis, as an emerging advanced oxidation process (AOP), has shown immense potential in water treatment and been widely demonstrated to remove persistent organic compounds in the past decade. The present article aims to provide a comprehensive review on the development of a heterogeneous catalyst for enhancing the ultrasonic degradation rate of organic pollutants from a viewpoint of sonocatalytic mechanism. The rational design and fundamentals for preparing sonocatalysts are presented in the context of facilitating the heterogeneous nucleation and photo-thermal-catalytic effects as well as considering the mechanical stability and separation capacity of the heterogeneous catalyst. In addition, some new trends, ongoing challenges and possible methods to overcome these challenges are also highlighted and proposed.