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The feasibility of Forward Osmosis (FO) as an alternative treatment technology to current membrane processes is believed to hinge on its reported lower fouling propensity. In this study, the impacts of constant osmotic pressure and hydraulic pressure driving forces on membrane fouling were investigated using a novel approach. In each case the cake layer was modelled accounting for all concentration polarisation effects and effective driving force. Compared to the widely employed method of using a non-constant osmotic pressure difference during bench-scale fouling experiments, maintaining a constant osmotic pressure led to 50% more alginate deposited on the same membrane surface (from 13.7 to 21.7 g/m2). This was attributed to a stronger osmotic driving force at the active layer interface and enhanced fouling due to a greater reverse flux of Na+ ions. An applied hydraulic pressure of 1 bar already changed fouling cake deposition and the cake structural parameter shrunk by 224 and 83 μm for the two thin-film composite membranes tested. A detailed analysis of the model however demonstrated that it needs further development, incorporating pore size, porosity and tortuosity of the foulant cake to enable drawing reliable conclusions on the causality of cake layer compaction. Variable energy sources such as solar and runoff sources are intermittent in time and space, following their driving hydro-meteorological processes. Recent research has shown that in mountainous areas the combination of solar and hydropower has large potential (termed complementarity) to cover the temporal variability of the energy load and, by this mean, to facilitate integration of renewables into the electricity network. Climate change is causing widespread glacier retreat, and much attention is devoted to negative impacts such as diminishing water resources and shifts in runoff seasonality. However, the effects of glacier shrinkage on complementarity between hydropower and solar energy sources have been disregarded so far. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/gefitinib-based-protac-3.html This research aims at filling this gap. Data from the Eastern Italian Alps are used for the analysis. The Decision Scaling approach is used to analyze the electric energy system sensitivity and vulnerability to change in precipitation, temperature and glacier coverage. With this method, the electric energy system is first subject to a scenario-independent climate stress test, while projections from Regional Climate Models (RCMs) are then used to infer the likelihood of the future climate states and subsequently changes in complementarity of energy production. Results show that glacier shrinkage and increasing temperatures induced by climate change lead to a marked shift of seasonal hydropower production. As a consequence, the complementarity between hydropower and solar photovoltaic increases in a marked way in the basin with the largest original glacier coverage. Changes in complementarity are less significant in larger basins characterized by less glacier contribution. Cervico-thoracic vertebral subluxation (CTVS) in sheep is a collective term that is used to describe various conditions that concomitantly affect the cervical and thoracic vertebrae, leading to their collapse. The aetiology and pathophysiology of CTVS remain unknown. The objective of this study was to conduct an epidemiological farm investigation and describe the clinicopathological findings of CTVS cases occurring in a flock of sheep; as well as to determine awareness of CTVS among sheep producers and ruminant veterinarians in Australia. Diagnostic imaging revealed severe deformities in the vertebrae between C6-C7 and T1-T3. Sheep affected with CTVS were at a four times higher risk of having low body condition scores ( less then 2 based on a 5-point scale) compared with non-affected sheep, OR = 3.98, 95% CI (1.20-12.65), p = .02. Survey results revealed that only 34% (15/44) of respondents were aware of CTVS. There is a need to further explore the aetiology and pathophysiology of CTVS, and the impact it has on sheep breeding and production. Encapsulation metal oxides into carbon frameworks is a good strategy to synthesis high activity and stable catalyst. Here, Fe3O4 nanoparticles (?20 nm) were firmly encapsulated in the graphene aerogels by a simple and environmentally friendly method (Fe3O4/GAs), for activating persulfate (PS) to degrade malachite green (MG) under simulated sunlight. A strong electron conduction was generated between the Fe3O4 nanoparticles and graphene sheets to improve the cycle of Fe(II)/Fe(III), and the MG degradation over a wide pH rage (3-9) was enhanced greatly. The MG molecule was decomposed into 12 intermediates and two possible pathways was proposed. More importantly, toxicity test and Toxicity Estimation Software (T.E.S.T.) proved that the toxicity of MG can be effectively controlled by Fe3O4/GAs + PS + light system. In addition to the high catalytic activity, Fe3O4/GAs exhibited a good stability and reusability due to the strong interaction between Fe3O4 and graphene layers. The degradation efficiency remained above 87% after six cycles, and the leaching amount of iron in each cycle was less than 0.125 wt%. SO4?- was the dominate radical for MG degradation and the heterogeneous Fenton-like reaction was mainly performed on the surface of catalyst. This work lay a foundation for applying Fe3O4/GAs as a highly efficient, stable and reusable heterogeneous Fenton-like catalyst for future applications. Adsorption is a simple and effective method for the removal of hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) from contaminated water. Several amino silane-graphene oxide (GO) composites with different species of amino groups (pN-GO, psN-GO, and pssN-GO; p primary, s secondary, N amine) were evaluated to investigate their adsorption capacity and the effects of primary and secondary amines on Cr(VI) adsorption. We conducted a quantitative analysis to reveal the difference between primary and secondary amines in terms of Cr(VI) removal efficiency. A synergic effect was observed between the neighboring secondary amines in pssN-GO. From the Langmuir model prediction, we found that the composite with pssN-GO exhibited the highest maximum adsorption capacity (260.74 mg/g), followed by those with psN-GO (208.22 mg/g) and pN-GO (189.47 mg/g). Monolayer adsorption was more dominant when using pssN-GO, with the pseudo-second-order model best fitting the kinetic experiment results, whereas multilayer adsorption was dominant when using psN-GO and pN-GO.
