Equilibrium,Thermodynamic, and Kinetic Studies on Lead (II) Biosorption from Aqueous Solution by Saccharomyces cerevisiae Biomass

This paper presents a biosorption procedure for the preconcentration of Pb²⁺ ions using Saccharomyces cerevisiae biomass. The influence of several factors including pH, biomass dosage, contact time, and temperature on biosorption efficiency were optimized. At optimum value of all the equilibrium, thermodynamic, and kinetic parameters of Pb²⁺ ion biosorption was investigated by testing the Langmuir and Freundlich models and first and second order kinetic models were applied. The biosorption capacity of S. cerevisiae biomass was determined 89.6 mg/g, while the retained Pb²⁺ ions by S. cerevisiae were reversibly eluted using 5 mol/L HNO₃. Due to the high stability of S. cerevisiae the applied biomass can be used successively ten times with a slightly decrease (about 20%) in the recovery of Pb²⁺ ions. The calculated thermodynamic parameters, ΔG°, ΔH°, and ΔS° showed that the biosorption of Pb²⁺ ion onto S. cerevisiae biomass was feasible, spontaneous, and endothermic under examined conditions. The results of kinetic analysis showed that the biosorption processes of Pb²⁺ ions onto S. cerevisiae biomass followed pseudo second order kinetics.     

Using Dempster–Shafer theory to model earthquake events

Natural Hazards - In this study, Dempster–Shafer theory (DST) is integrated into a geographic information system to model vulnerability of the land surface to earthquake events in...     

Geotechnical risk evaluation of tunneling projects using optimization techniques (case study: the second part of Emamzade Hashem tunnel)

Natural Hazards - Tunneling projects are generally complex projects with numerous affective factors, including variable and unreliable conditions of the land. One of the appropriate tools for...     

An improved displacement-based adaptive pushover procedure based on factor modal combination rule

An accurate estimation of the applied load pattern is an essential component in each pushover procedure. Recently, a number of adaptive pushover methods have been proposed in which the effects of the higher modes as well as the progressive changes in the dynamic characteristics of structures are taken into account to compute the applied load pattern. The basic shortcoming of these advanced pushover methods is related to employing the quadratic modal combination rule, whereby the sign reversals of the modal load vectors are suppressed. In this study, an improved displacement-based adaptive pushover method is developed in which the applied load pattern is computed using the factor modal combination rule(FMC). In the proposed procedure, multiple load patterns, depending on the number of the modes considered, are determined in order to take into account the sign reversals of different modal load vectors. The accuracy of the proposed method is verifi ed for seven moment resisting frame buildings of 3, 9 and 20 stories with regularity or vertically geometric and mass irregularities subjected to 60 earthquake ground motion records. The results showed that the proposed methodology is capable of reproducing the peak dynamic responses with very good accuracy.     

Phase and amplitude error indices for error quantification in pseudodynamic testing

Real-time pseudodynamic (PSD) and hybrid PSD testing methods are displacement controlled experimental techniques that are used to investigate the dynamic behaviour of complex and load rate-dependent structures. Because the imposed command displacements are not predefined but generated during the test based on measured feedback, these methods are inherently prone to error propagation, which can affect the accuracy and even the stability of the entire experiment. As a result, to have these experimental methods as reliable tools, the accuracy of the test results needs to be assessed by carefully monitoring, and if possible, quantifying the errors involved. In this paper, phase and amplitude error indices (PAEI) are introduced to identify the experimental errors through uncoupled closed-form equations. Unlike the indicators that have been previously introduced in the literature for error identification purposes, PAEI do not use test setup specific parameters in their formulation, and can quantify the errors independent of the amplitude of the command displacements. As such, PAEI can be used as standard tools for assessing the quality of the experiments performed in different laboratories or under different conditions. Additionally, because they can quantify the error, when implemented online, PAEI have the potential to be incorporated in the control law and thereby improve the actuator control during the tests. The formulation and implementation of PAEI are provided in this paper. The enhanced performance of the proposed indices is demonstrated by processing several different measured and command signals using PAEI and comparing the results with those revealed by the previous indicators. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Response Surface Optimization of Acid Red 119 Dye Adsorption by Mixtures of Dried Sewage Sludge and Sewage Sludge Ash

The mixtures of dried sewage sludge (DSS) and sewage sludge ash were studied for removal of acid red 119 (AR119) dye as a new, more environmental friendly, and low cost adsorbent. For this purpose, response surface methodology was applied to optimize the dye removal efficiency and turbidity of treated dye solutions as two individual responses. Results revealed that an optimum condition under specified constraints (dye removal efficiency >95% and turbidity <50 NTU) was obtained at a contact time of 60 min, 40 wt% DSS in the mixture, an initial pH of 6, and an initial dye concentration of 200 mg dye/L in distilled water. Under the optimal condition, dye removal efficiency of 94.98% and effluent turbidity of 24.9 NTU was observed. In further studies, at optimum condition, the effect of some additives on adsorption process and desorption/reusability of adsorbent was investigated. It was observed that removal efficiency was significantly decreased to 83.76% when a simulated dye wastewater (containing the selected dye, acetic acid, and Glauber's salt dissolved in tap water) was used. Desorption studies revealed that AR119 dye could be well removed from dye‐loaded adsorbent by 0.3 M NaOH solution.     

Transport of kinetically sorbing solutes in heterogeneous sediments with multimodal conductivity and hierarchical organization across scales

Solute transport in subsurface environments is controlled by geological heterogeneity over multiple scales. In reactive transport characterized by a low Damköhler number, it is also controlled by the rate of kinetic mass transfer. A theory for addressing the impact of sedimentary texture on the transport of kinetically sorbing solutes in heterogeneous porous formations is derived using the Lagrangian-based stochastic methodology. The resulting model represents the hierarchical organization of sedimentary textures and associated modes of log conductivity (K) for sedimentary units through a hierarchical Markov Chain. The model characterizes kinetic sorption using a spatially uniform linear reversible rate expression. Our main interest is to investigate the effect of sorption kinetics relative to the effects of K heterogeneity on the dispersion of a reactive plume. We study the contribution of each scale of stratal architecture to the dispersion of kinetically sorbing solutes in the case of a low Damköhler number. Examples are used to demonstrate the time evolution and relative contributions of the auto- and cross-transition probability terms to dispersion. Our analysis is focused on the model sensitivity to the parameters defined at each hierarchical level (scale) including the integral scales of K spatial correlation, the anisotropy ratio, the indicator correlation scales, and the contrast in mean K between facies defined at different scales. The results show that the anisotropy ratio and integral scales of K have negligible effect upon the longitudinal dispersion of sorbing solutes. Furthermore, dispersion of sorbing solutes depends mostly on indicator correlation scales, and the contrast of the mean conductivity between units at different scales.     

An efficient approach for historical storage and retrieval of segmented road data in Geographic Information System for Transportation

One of the most powerful functions of Geographic Information System for Transportation(GIS-T)is Dynamic Segmentation(DS),which is used to increase the efficiency and precision of road management by generating segments based on attributes.The road segments describing transportation data are both spatially and temporally referenced.For a variety of transportation applications,historical road segments must be preserved.This study presents an appropriate approach to preserve and retrieve the historical road segments efficiently.In the proposed method,only the portions of segments of a time stamp that have been changed into new segments rather than storing the entire segments for every old time stamp are recorded.The storage of these portions is based on the type of changes.A recursive algorithm is developed to retrieve all segments for every old time stamp.Experimental results using real data of Tehran City,Iran justify the strength of the proposed approach in many aspects.An important achievement of the results is that database volume for 2006,2007 and 2008 within the Historical Line Event Table(HLET)is reduced by 70%,80%and 78%,respectively.The proposed method has the potential to prevent from vast data redundancy and the unnecessary storage of entire segments for each time stamp.Since the present technique is performed on ordinary plain tables that are readable by all GIS software,special software platforms to manage the storage and retrieval of historical segments are not needed.In addition,this method simplifies spatio-temporal queries.