Innate and adaptive immune response of Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) naturally infected with Yersinia ruckeri.

Rainbow trout is an important fish species for Peruvian artisanal aquaculture, comprising over 60 % of the total aquaculture production. However, their industry has been highly affected by several bacterial agents such as Yersinia ruckeri. This pathogen is the causative agent of Enteric Redmouth Disease, and causes high mortality in fingerlings and chronic infection in adult rainbow trout. To date, the immune response of rainbow trout against Y. ruckeri has been well studied in laboratory-controlled infection studies (i.e. intraperitoneal infection, bath immersion), however, the immune response during natural infection has not been explored. To address this, in this study, 35 clinically healthy O. mykiss without evidence of lesions or changes in behavior and 32 rainbow trout naturally infected by Y. ruckeri, were collected from semi-intensive fish farms located in the Central Highlands of Peru. To evaluate the effect on the immune response, RT-qPCR, western blotting, and ELISA were conducted using head kidney, spleen, and skin tissues to evaluate the relative gene expression and protein levels. Our results show a significant increase in the expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokines il1b, tnfa, and il6, as well as ifng in all three tissues, as well as increases in IL-1ß and IFN-γ protein levels. The endogenous pathway of antigen presentation showed to play a key role in defense against Y. ruckeri, due to the upregulation of mhc-I, tapasin, and b2m transcripts, and the significant increase of Tapasin protein levels in infected rainbow trout. None of the genes associated with the exogenous pathway of antigen presentation showed a significant increase in infected fish, suggesting that this pathway is not involved in the response against this intracellular pathogen. Finally, the transcripts of immunoglobulins IgM and IgT did not show a modulation, nor were the protein levels evaluated in this study.

Influence of different position modal parameters on milling chatter stability of orthopedic surgery robots.

This research is dedicated to exploring the dynamics of milling chatter stability in orthopedic surgery robots, focusing on the impact of position modal parameters on chatter stability. Initially, we develop a dynamic milling force model for the robotic milling process that integrates both modal coupling and regenerative effects. We then employ the zero-order frequency domain method to derive a chatter stability domain model, visually represented through stability lobe diagrams (SLDs). Through conducting hammer test experiments, we ascertain the robot's modal parameters at varying positions, enabling the precise generation of SLDs. This study also includes experimental validation of the chatter SLD analysis method, laying the groundwork for further examination of chatter stability across different positional modal parameters. Finally, our analysis of the variations in modal parameters on the stability of robot milling chatter yields a theoretical framework for optimizing cutting parameters and developing control strategies within the context of orthopedic surgery robots.

Exploring the potential prompting role of cervical human papilloma virus detection in vulvar lesions: a cross-sectional study in China.

Introduction: The etiology and clinical presentation of vulvar carcinomas, especially vulvar lesions, are not fully understood. Because the vulva and cervix are anatomically connected, human papillomavirus (HPV) is the main cause of cervical lesions. Thus, this study explored the potential characteristics and effects of specific HPV infection types across vulvar lesions and concurrent cervical lesions. Methods: This retrospective, cross-sectional study analyzed patients with cervical HPV or cytological results and concurrent vulvar biopsy who were seen in our hospital colposcopy clinic in Shanxi Province, China, between 2013 and 2023. Data on age, menopause status, vulvar manifestations, and cytology and HPV infection testing results were collected. Attributable fractions and multinominal logistic models were used to evaluate HPV genotyping and clinical characteristics across vulvar lesions. Results: Among the 1,027 participants, 83 (8.1%) had vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (VIN) of high grade or worse (VIN2+), and 127 (12.4%) had non-neoplastic epithelial disorders of the vulva (NNEDV). A total of 175 patients had either VIN2+ or cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) lesions of grade 2 or worse (CIN2+). The most common HPV genotypes for VIN2+ or concurrent VIN2+/CIN2+ were HPV16, HPV52, and HPV58, although attributable fractions differed among lesions. Patients with normal cytological or histopathological result were more likely to have NNEDV detected, while abnormal cervical diagnosis was associated with higher detection of VIN2+. Multinominal logistic modeling showed that age and HPV16 infection were risk factors for VIN2+ or concurrent VIN2+/CIN2+; however, only vulvar presentation with depigmentation was a risk factor for NNEDV. Among patients with low-grade CIN1/VIN1, compared with those who were HPV16 negative, those who were HPV16 positive were at 6.63-fold higher risk of VIN2+/CIN2+ [95% confidence interval (CI): 3.32, 13.21]. Vulvar depigmentation was also associated with increased risk of NNEDV (odds ratio: 9.98; 95% CI: 3.02, 33.04). Conclusions: Chinese women may be at specific, high risk for HPV infection types associated with VIN or CIN. The use of cervical cell HPV detection along with vulvar presentation during cervical cancer screening may also contribute to vulvar lesion detection.

Influence of pasteurization and spray drying on the fat digestion behavior of human milk fat analog emulsion: a simulated in vitro infant digestion study.

BACKGROUND: Human milk fat analog emulsion (HMFAE) is an emulsion that mimics the composition and structure of human milk (HM) fat globules. The application of HMFAE in infant formula requires a series of milk powder processing steps, such as pasteurization and spray drying. However, the effect of milk powder processing on fat digestion of HMFAE is still unclear. In this study, the influence of pasteurization and spray drying on the lipolysis behavior of HMFAE was studied and compared with HM using a simulated infant in vitro digestion model. RESULTS: Pasteurization and spray drying increased the flocculation and aggregation of lipid droplets in HMFAE during digestion. Spray drying destroyed the lipid droplet structure of HMFAE, and partial milk fat globule membrane-covered lipid droplets turned into protein-covered lipid droplets, which aggravated lipid-protein aggregation during gastric digestion and hindered fat digestion in the small intestine. The final lipolysis degree was in the order HM (64.55%) > HMFAE (63.41%) > pasteurized HMFAE (61.75%) > spray-dried HMFAE (60.57%). After complete gastrointestinal digestion, there were no significant differences in free fatty acid and sn-2 monoacylglycerol profile among the HMFAE, pasteurized HMFAE, and spray-dried HMFAE. CONCLUSION: Milk powder processing can reduce lipolysis by altering the lipid droplet structure of HMFAE and the degree of lipid droplet aggregation during digestion. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.

Ultrasound-induced structural changes of different milk fat globule membrane protein-phospholipids complexes and their effects on physicochemical and functional properties of emulsions.

Ultrasonic technology is a non-isothermal processing technology that can be used to modify the physicochemical properties of food ingredients. This study investigated the effects of ultrasonic time (5 min, 10 min, 15 min) and power (150 W,300 W,500 W) on the structural properties of three types of phospholipids composed of different fatty acids (milk fat globule membrane phospholipid (MPL), egg yolk lecithin (EYL), soybean lecithin (SL)) and milk fat globule membrane protein (MFGMP). We found that the ultrasound treatment changed the conformation of the protein, and the emulsions prepared by the pretreatment showed better emulsification and stability, the lipid droplets were also more evenly distributed. Meanwhile, the flocculation phenomenon of the lipid droplets was significantly improved compared with the non-ultrasonic emulsions. Compared with the three complexes, it was found that ultrasound had the most significant effect on the properties of MPL-MFGMP, and its emulsion state was the most stable. When the ultrasonic condition was 300 W, the particle size of the emulsion decreased significantly (from 441.50 ±â€¯4.79 nm to 321.77 ±â€¯9.91 nm) at 15 min, and the physical stability constants KE decreased from 14.49 ±â€¯0.702 % to 9.4 ±â€¯0.261 %. It can be seen that proper ultrasonic pretreatment can effectively improve the stability of the system. At the same time, the emulsification performance of the emulsion had also been significantly improved. While the accumulation phenomenon occurred when the ultrasonic power was 150 W and 500 W. These results showed that ultrasonic pretreatment had great potential to improve the properties of emulsions, and this study would provide a theoretical basis for the application of emulsifier in the emulsions.

Impact of the geometric structure parameter on the performance of dielectric barrier reactor for toluene removal.

The reasonable geometry design of non-thermal plasma (NTP) reactor is significant for its performance. However, optimizing the reactor structure has received insufficient attention in the studies on removing volatile organic compounds by NTP. Several dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactors with various barrier thicknesses and discharge gaps were designed, and their discharge characteristics and toluene degradation performance were explored comprehensively. The number and intensity of current pulses, discharge power, emission spectrum intensity and gas temperature of the DBD reactors increased as barrier thickness decreased. The toluene removal efficiency and mineralization rate increased from 23.2-87.1% and 5.3-27.9% to 81.7-100% and 15.9-51.3%, respectively, when the barrier thickness reduced from 3 to 1 mm. With the increase of discharge gap, the breakdown voltage, discharge power, gas temperature and residence time increased, while the discharge intensity decreased. The reactor with the smallest discharge gap (3.5 mm) exhibited the highest toluene removal efficiency (78.4-100%), mineralization rate (15.6-40.9%) and energy yield (8.4-18.7 g/kWh). Finally, the toluene degradation pathways were proposed based on the detected organic intermediates. The findings can provide critical guidance for designing and optimizing of DBD reactor structures.

The effect of PACAP administration on LPS-induced cytokine expression in the Atlantic salmon SHK-1 cell line.

Recent work has identified pituitary adenylate cyclase activating polypeptide (PACAP) as a potential antimicrobial and immune stimulating agent which may be suitable for use in aquaculture. However, its effects on teleost immunity are not well studied and may be significantly different than what has been observed in mammals. In this study we examined the effects of PACAP on the Atlantic salmon macrophage cell line SHK-1. PACAP was able to increase the expression of LPS-induced il-1ß in at concentrations of 1 uM when administered 24h prior to LPS stimulation. Furthermore, concentrations as low as 40nM had an effect when administered both 24h prior and in tandem with LPS. PACAP was also capable of increasing the expression of il-1ß and tnf-α in SHK-1 cells challenged with a low dose of heat-killed Flavobacterium columnare. We attempted to get a better understanding of the mechanism underlying this enhancement of il-1ß expression by manipulating downstream signaling of PACAP with inhibitors of phosphodiesterase and phospholipase C activity. We found that inducing cAMP accumulation with phosphodiesterase inhibitors failed to recapitulate the effect of PACAP administration on LPS-mediated il-1ß expression by PACAP, while use of a phospholipase C inhibitor caused a PACAP-like enhancement in LPS-mediated il-1ß expression. Interestingly, the VPAC1 receptor inhibitor PG97-269, but not the PAC1 inhibitor max.d.4, also was capable of causing a PACAP-like enhancement in LPS-mediated il-1ß expression. This suggests that fish do not utilize the PACAP receptors in the same manner as mammals, but that it still exerts an immunostimulatory effect that make it a good immunostimulant for use in aquaculture.

Insights into the day-night sources and optical properties of coastal organic aerosols in southern China.

Organic aerosols (OAs) in particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of smaller than 2.5 µm (PM2.5) can affect the atmospheric radiation balance through varying molecular structure and light absorption of the aerosols. In this study, daytime and nighttime PM2.5 mass, and contents of OA including nitrated aromatic compounds (NACs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), n-alkanes, and hopanes were measured from April 11th to May 15th, 2017, at the coastal Sanya, China. The average concentration of 18 total quantified PAHs (∑PAHs) was 2.08 ± 1.13 ng·m-3, which was 2.8 and 12 times higher than that of ∑NACs and hopanes, while was 7.5 times lower that of n-alkanes. Combustion-derived PAHs contributed 74% to the ∑PAHs. This finding, in addition to a high benzo[a]pyrene/(benzo[a]pyrene+benzo[e]pyrene) ratio, indicates that the PAHs mainly derived from fresh fuel combustion during the sampling periods. Furthermore, dramatic day-night differences were observed in the loadings of total NACs, PAHs, and n-alkanes, which had a high coefficient of divergence values of 0.67, 0.47, and 0.32, respectively. Moreover, hopanes exhibited similar variation as well. The proportion of dimethyl-nitrophenol (DM-NP), dinitrophenol (DNP), and nitrosalicylic acid (NSA) in PM2.5 were higher in the daytime than at nighttime, suggesting the co-influence of primary emissions and secondary formation related to biomass combustion. The positive matrix factorization (PMF) model revealed that motor vehicle and biomass burning emissions were the two main pollution sources in the daytime, contributing 51.7% and 24.6%, respectively, of the total quantified OAs. The proportion of industrial coal combustion emissions was higher at nighttime (20.6%) than in daytime (10%). Both the PAHs and NACs displayed light absorbing capacities among OAs compounds over Sanya City, and thus their influence on solar radiation must be considered in the future control policies.

Abatement of chlorobenzene by plasma catalysis: Parameters optimization through response surface methodology (RSM), degradation mechanism and PCDD/Fs formation.

Dielectric barrier discharge coupled with 10 wt% Co/γ-Al2O3 catalyst was developed to degrade chlorobenzene in this study. The effects of experimental parameters including applied voltage, flow rate, initial chlorobenzene concentration, and their interactions on the chlorobenzene degradation performance were investigated by the response surface methodology integrated with a central composite design. Results indicated that applied voltage was the most significant parameter affecting the mineralization rate and the concentration of ozone generated, while energy yield was mainly determined by initial chlorobenzene concentration. As a key precursor of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs), polychlorophenols were found during the identification of the intermediates produced during chlorobenzene degradation through GC-MS. Furthermore, HRGC-HRMS was used to detect the remaining byproducts on the catalyst surface after 3 and 10 h discharge time, and three types of PCDD/Fs (2,3,7,8-TCDF, 1,2,3,4,6,7,8-HCDF and OCDD) were detected after 10 h of discharge. The degradation mechanism of chlorobenzene was analyzed based on these detected intermediates, and the possible formation mechanisms of the three PCDD/Fs were proposed for the first time in plasma catalytic degradation of chlorobenzene.

Temperature Distribution Simulation, Prediction and Sensitivity Analysis of Orthogonal Cutting of Cortical Bone.

Bone cutting plays an important role in spine surgical operations. The power devices with high speed employing in bone cutting usually leads to high cutting temperature of the bone tissue. This high temperature control is important in improving cutting surface quality and optimizing the cutting parameters. In this paper, the bone-cutting model was appropriately simplified for finite element (FE) based modeling of 2D orthogonal cutting to discuss the change law of cutting temperature of cortical bones for cervical vertebra, and to study the orthogonal cutting mechanism of the anisotropic cortical bone, a 3D FE simulation model had been also established in which longitudinal, vertical, and transversal cutting types were accomplished to investigate the effect of osteons orientation. Secondly, this response surface method was used to regress the simulation results, and establishes the prediction model of maximum temperature on cutting depth, cutting speed, and feed speed. Then, the Sobol method was used to analyze the sensitivity of the milling temperature prediction mathematical model parameters, in order to clarify and quantitatively analyze the influence of input milling parameters on the output milling temperature. Finally, the cutting temperatures obtained with the simulations were compared with the corresponding experimental results obtained from the bone milling tests. This study verifies the influence of key variables and the cutting parameters on thermo mechanical behavior of the bone cutting. The obtained cutting temperature distribution for the bone surfaces could be employed to establish a theoretical foundation for research on thermal damage control of bone tissues.

Dielectric barrier discharge coupled with Fe2+, Mn2+ and Cu2+ scrubbing for toluene removal.

By-product ozone emission is one of the challenges for applying dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) technology for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) removal. In this study, a DBD reactor followed by a wet scrubber (WS) containing a solution of metal ions (Fe2+/Mn2+/Cu2+) was used to reuse ozone for further oxidation of typical VOC toluene. Compared with the degradation effect of the DBD reactor alone, DBD coupled WS/iron system not only improved the toluene removal efficiency but also significantly reduced the ozone emission. The ozone removal efficiency reached as high as 98% in the DBD coupled WS/Fe2+ system. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) tests showed that ozone was converted into radicals such as hydroxyl radicals in Fe2+ and Cu2+ solution, which further oxidized toluene in WS/iron. Quenching experiments showed that the contribution for toluene degradation by radicals was up to 75% and 62% in Fe2+ and Mn2+ reactor, respectively. This study demonstrates that the DBD coupled WS system has the potential to be an environmentally friendly technology for gaseous VOCs removal.

Nitrogen oxide gas purification using carbon in water as reducing reagent with the aid of microbial fuel cell.

Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) can degrade the organic matter (OM) in wastewater at the anode and transfer electrons to the cathode. In this work, the harmful NOX gas was used as electron acceptor in MFC and converted to harmless N2. The OM in water was indirectly used as a zero-cost reducing agent for NOx removal. More than 80% of NOX was removed continuously by MFC at room temperature. The NOX was directly reduced to N2 at MFC cathode and the cathode activity played a key role on enhancing the NOX removal. The NOX removal efficiency by the cathode of high potential was 1.37 times that by the cathode of low potential. When O2 coexisting with NO as the electron acceptor, not only the NOX removal but also the power output of MFC was improved greatly. The presence of NOX did not decrease the power generation of MFC under the same O2 concentration. The MFCs showed good stability for NOX treatment and power output. Moreover, the possible pathways and advantages of NOX removal by MFC were discussed in detail. These results indicated that the MFC system has the potential to treat wastewater, purify flue gas and recover energy simultaneously.

High energy efficient degradation of toluene using a novel double dielectric barrier discharge reactor.

A double dielectric barrier discharge (DDBD) reactor was established to decompose toluene with high energy efficiency. Differences in discharge characteristics including visual images, voltage-current waveforms, Lissajous figures, and temperature variation, were determined between the DDBD and SDBD reactors. Removal efficiency, mineralization rate, CO2 selectivity, and energy yield were used to evaluate the toluene abatement performance of the two reactors. Compared to the SDBD reactor, the DDBD reactor exhibited more uniform and stable discharges due to a change in discharge mode. In addition, the DDBD reactor's dissipated power and reactor temperature (including the gas, barrier and ground electrode) were significantly lower than those in the SDBD reactor. At 22-24 kV, the DDBD reactor showed a higher toluene removal efficiency and mineralization rate, while at 14-16 kV, the SDBD reactor exhibited higher respective value. The energy efficiency of the DDBD was 2.5-3 times that of the SDBD reactor, and the overall energy constant koverall of the DDBD reactor (1.47 mL/J) was significantly higher than that of the SDBD reactor (0.367 mL/J) as revealed by the kinetics study. Lastly, a plausible toluene degradation mechanism in the DDBD and SDBD reactors was proposed based on organic intermediates that formed during toluene decomposition.

Kinetics study on non-thermal plasma mineralization of adsorbed toluene over γ-Al2O3 hybrid with zeolite.

Non-thermal plasma mineralization of the adsorbed toluene over γ-Al2O3 hybrid with 13X, ZSM-5, and HY was investigated in a sequential adsorption and plasma oxidation system. The γ-Al2O3-13X was shown to have a better plasma oxidation performance with fewer by-products as compared to γ-Al2O3-ZSM-5 and γ-Al2O3-HY, which was due to its better discharge performance and O3 decomposition ability. For all of the tested materials, the plasma mineralization of the adsorbed toluene process had a good match with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model: kt = 1/n - 1/no, where n0 and n are the amount of adsorbed toluene (mmol) at discharge time = 0 and t, respectively. The overall reaction constant (k) was shown to be affected by the packing materials. The reason for the kinetic model following the pseudo-second-order in the sequential process was analyzed based on the chemical reaction and mineralization mechanism.

A 6-DOF parallel bone-grinding robot for cervical disc replacement surgery.

Artificial cervical disc replacement surgery has become an effective and main treatment method for cervical disease, which has become a more common and serious problem for people with sedentary work. To improve cervical disc replacement surgery significantly, a 6-DOF parallel bone-grinding robot is developed for cervical bone-grinding by image navigation and surgical plan. The bone-grinding robot including mechanical design and low level control is designed. The bone-grinding robot navigation is realized by optical positioning with spatial registration coordinate system defined. And a parametric robot bone-grinding plan and high level control have been developed for plane grinding for cervical top endplate and tail endplate grinding by a cylindrical grinding drill and spherical grinding for two articular surfaces of bones by a ball grinding drill. Finally, the surgical flow for a robot-assisted cervical disc replacement surgery procedure is present. The final experiments results verified the key technologies and performance of the robot-assisted surgery system concept excellently, which points out a promising clinical application with higher operability. Finally, study innovations, study limitations, and future works of this present study are discussed, and conclusions of this paper are also summarized further. This bone-grinding robot is still in the initial stage, and there are many problems to be solved from a clinical point of view. Moreover, the technique is promising and can give a good support for surgeons in future clinical work.

Removal of toluene by sequential adsorption-plasma oxidation: Mixed support and catalyst deactivation.

A sequential adsorption-plasma oxidation system was used to remove toluene from simulated dry air using γ-Al2O3, HZSM-5, a mixture of the two materials or their supported Mn-Ag catalyst as adsorbents under atmospheric pressure and room temperature. After 120min of plasma oxidation, γ-Al2O3 had a better carbon balance (∼75%) than HZSM-5, but the CO2 yield of γ-Al2O3 was only ∼50%; and there was some desorption of toluene when γ-Al2O3 was used. When a mixture of HZSM-5 and γ-Al2O3 with a mass ratio of 1/2 was used, the carbon balance was up to 90% and 82% of this was CO2. The adsorption performance and electric discharge characteristics of the mixed supports were tested in order to rationalize this high COx yield. After seven cycles of sequential adsorption-plasma oxidation, support and Mn-Ag catalyst deactivation occurred. The support and catalyst were characterized before and after deactivation by SEM, a BET method, XRD, XPS and GC-MS in order to probe the mechanism of their deactivation. 97.6% of the deactivated supports and 76% of the deactivated catalysts could be recovered by O2 temperature-programmed oxidation.

Toluene removal by sequential adsorption-plasma catalytic process: Effects of Ag and Mn impregnation sequence on Ag-Mn/γ-Al2O3.

A series of Ag-Mn/γ-Al2O3 were prepared under different Ag/Mn impregnation sequence and tested in the sequential adsorption-plasma catalytic removal of toluene. When Mn was impregnated first, the resulting catalyst, Ag-Mn(F)/γ-Al2O3, had longer breakthrough time, gave less emission of toluene, had higher CO2 selectivity, and had better carbon balance and COx yield compared to catalysts prepared via other impregnation sequences. After 120 min of NTP treatment, the carbon balance of Ag-Mn(F)/γ-Al2O3 was 91%, with 87% as COx contributions. A Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results show that, the impregnation sequence impacts the BET surface area and the ratio and existing state of Ag on the surface of the catalysts. The longer breakthrough time when using Ag-Mn(F)/γ-Al2O3 as catalyst is attributed to the large amount of Ag(+) on the surface. Ag(+) is a new active site for toluene adsorption. When Ag was impregnated first (Ag(F)-Mn/γ-Al2O3) or Ag and Mn co-impregnated (Ag-Mn-C/γ-Al2O3), the predominant specie was Ag(+). Both Ag(0) and Ag(+) species were detected on Ag-Mn(F)/γ-Al2O3. Ag(0) cooperation with MnOx may promote the migration of surface active oxygen. This would facilitate the oxidation of adsorbed toluene with CC bond already weakened by Ag(+) and would result in higher CO2 selectivity and better carbon balance as seen in the Ag-Mn(F)/γ-Al2O3 system.

Performance of a pilot-scale wet electrostatic precipitator for the control of sulfuric acid mist.

The use of a wet electrostatic precipitator (WESP) is often regarded as a viable option to reduce sulfuric acid mist emitted from the wet flue gas desulfurization (WFGD) tower in coal-fired power plants. In this study, a pilot-scale wet electrostatic precipitator equipped with a wall-cooled collection electrode is investigated for the control of sulfuric acid mist from a simulated WFGD system. The results show that due to partial charging effect, the removal efficiency of sulfuric acid aerosol decreases when the aerosol size decreases to several tens of nanometers. Moreover, due to the plasma-induced effect, a large number of ultrafine sulfuric acid aerosols below 50 nm formed at a voltage higher than 24 kV inside the WESP. The percentages of submicron-sized aerosols significantly increase together with the voltage. To minimize the adverse plasma-induced effect, a WESP should be operated at a high gas velocity with an optimum high voltage. Even at a high flue gas velocity of 2.3 m s(-1), the mass concentration and the total number concentration of uncaptured sulfuric acid aerosols at the WESP outlet are as low as ca. 0.6 mg m(-3) and ca. 10(4) 1 cm(-3) at 28 kV, respectively. The corresponding removal efficiencies were respectively higher than 99.4 and 99.9 % and are very similar to that at 1.1 and 1.6 m s(-1). Moreover, the condensation-induced aerosol growth enhances the removal of sulfuric acid mist inside a WESP and enables a low emission concentration of ca. 0.65 mg m(-3) with a corresponding removal efficiency superior to 99.4 % even at a low voltage of 21 kV, and of ca. 0.35 mg m(-3) with a corresponding removal efficiency superior to 99.6 % at a higher voltage level of 26 kV.