[en] The influence of solid packing on the chemical process involved in the solid-liquid-gas three-phase discharge plasma reactor, initiated by a bipolar pulsed power source was studied with indigo carmine (indigo-5,5'-disulfonic acid, IDS) as the probe. Dynamic scanning of the UV-Vis absorption spectrum was used as the analysis method. Experimental results show that addition of solid packing into the water-air two-phase discharge plasma reactor enhances the chemical processes in the reactor. The dielectric properties of the packing materials determine the degree of enhancement. Water treatment performance of the reactor with dielectric spheres is much better than that with conducting materials for the same experimental conditions. In addition, dielectric glass beads have a stronger influence on the chemical enhancement process than ceramic spheres. Decolourization of IDS in the plasma reactor with dielectric packing is a pseudo-first-order reaction. The total organic carbon in the solution decreases during the treatment process

[en] In the process of water treatment by bipolar pulsed discharge plasma, there are not only the chemical effects such as the cold plasma, but also the physical effects such as the optical radiation. The energy of the optical radiation can be used by photocatalyst. Therefore, the effect of the photocatalyst to the degradation of the organic pollutant was investigated using a packed bed reactor by bipolar pulsed discharge in the air-liquid-solid mixture. The nanoparticle TiO₂ photocatalyst was obtained using the sol-gel method and the typical dye solution Indigo Carmine was chosen as the degradation target to test the catalytic effect of the nanoparticle TiO₂ photocatalyst. Experiment results proved that the degradation efficiency of the Indigo Carmine solution was increased by a certain extent with the TiO₂ photocatalyst. It was totally decolorized within 3 minutes by bipolar pulsed discharge in the condition that the peak voltage was 30 kV and the air flow was 1.0 m³ h⁻¹.

[en] An atmospheric-pressure plasma jet array specially designed for HTV silicone rubber treatment is reported in this paper. Stable plasma containing highly energetic active particles was uniformly generated in the plasma jet array. The discharge pattern was affected by the applied voltage. The divergence phenomenon was observed at low gas flow rate and abated when the flow rate increased. Temperature of the plasma plume is close to room temperature which makes it feasible for temperature-sensitive material treatment. Hydrophobicity of contaminated HTV silicone rubber was significantly improved after quick exposure of the plasma jet array, and the effective treatment area reached 120 mm × 50 mm (length × width). Reactive particles in the plasma accelerate accumulation of the hydrophobic molecules, namely low molecular weight silicone chains, on the contaminated surface, which result in a hydrophobicity improvement of the HTV silicone rubber. (paper)

[en] Pulsed electric field (PEF) is a novel non-thermal food processing technology that involves the electric discharge of high voltage short pulses through the food product. In PEF study, rectangular pulses are most commonly used for inactivating microorganisms. However, little information is available on the inactivation effect of rising time of rectangular pulse. In this paper, inactivation effects, electric field strength, treatment time and conductivity on staphylococcus aureus inactivation were investigated when the pulse rising time is reduced from 2.5 μs to 200 ns. Experimental results showed that inactivation effect of PEF increased with electric field strength, solution conductivity and treatment time. Rising time of the rectangular pulse had a significant effect on the inactivation of staphylococcus aureus. Rectangular pulses with a rising time of 200 ns had a better inactivation effect than that with 2 μs. In addition, temperature increase of the solution treated by pulses with 200 ns rising time was lower than that with 2 μs. In order to obtain a given inactivation effect, treatment time required for the rectangular pulse with 200 ns rise time was shorter than that with 2 μs.

[en] Highlights: • A structural protein of ocular lens, Crybb2, has function in neuronal development. • Crybb2 contributes to dendritogenesis in vitro and in vivo. • Tmsb4X up-regulated in Crybb2 mutants mouse brain. • Overexpression of Tmsb4X inhibits dendritogenesis phenocopied the Crybb2 knock-down in hippocampal neuron. Dendrite morphogenesis is a complex but well-orchestrated process. Various studies reported the involvement of alteration in dendrite morphology in different brain disorders, including neuropsychiatric disorders. Initially, βB2-crystallin (gene symbol: Crybb2/CRYBB2) has been described as a structural protein of the ocular lens. Mutations of the corresponding gene, Crybb2, lead to cataract. Recent studies in mice suggested that mutations in Crybb2 cause alterations in hippocampal morphology and function, albeit its function in hippocampal neuron development remained elusive. In the current study, we found that Crybb2 contributes to dendritogenesis in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, screening of previous data on differential expression-arrays, we found Tmsb4X up-regulated in Crybb2 mutants mouse brain. Additionally, Tmsb4X was co-expressed with Crybb2 at actin-enriched cell ruffles. Over-expression of Tmsb4X in cultured hippocampal neurons inhibited dendritogenesis, which phenocopied Crybb2 knock-down. The current study uncovers a new function of Crybb2 in brain development, especially in dendritogenesis, and the possible interplay partner Tmsb4X involved in this process.

[en] Removal of amaranth, a commercial synthetic azo dye widely used in the dye and food industry, was examined as a possible remediation technology for treating dye-contaminated water. Effects of various parameters such as gas flow rate, solution conductivity, pulse repetition frequency, etc., on decolorization kinetics were investigated. Experimental results show that an aqueous solution of 24 mg/l dye is 81.24% decolorized following 30 min plasma treatment for a 50 kV voltage and 0.75 m³/h gas flow rate. Decolorization reaction of amaranth in the plasma reactor is a pseudo first order reaction. Rate constant (k) of decolorization increases quickly with increasing the applied voltage, pulse repetition frequency and the gas flow rate. However, when the applied voltage is beyond 50 kV and increases further, increase rate of k decreases. In addition, k decreases quickly when the solution conductivity increases from 200 to 1481 μS/cm. The decolorization reaction has a high rate constant (k = 0.0269 min^-1) when the solution pH is beyond 10. Rate constant k decreases with the decrease of pH and reaches minimum at a pH of about 5 (k _min = 0.01603 min^-1), then increases to 0.02105 min^-1 when pH decreases to 3.07. About 15% of the initial TOC can be degraded only in about 120 min non-thermal plasma treatment

[en] Ablation process of 1 kHz rate femtosecond lasers (pulse duration 148 fs, wavelength 775 nm) with Au films on silica substrates has been systemically studied. The single-pulse threshold can be obtained directly. For the multiple pulses the ablation threshold varies with the number of pulses applied to the surface due to the incubation effect. From the plot of accumulated laser fluence N x φ _th(N) and the number of laser pulses N, incubation coefficient of Au film can be obtained (s = 0.765). As the pulse energy is increased, the single pulse ablation rate is increasing following two ablation logarithmic regimes, which can be explained by previous research