ACTIVATION OF WATER USED IN THE PREPARATION OF WHEAT GRAIN FOR VARIETAL MILLING

The purpose of the study is to change the properties of water in order to achieve the optimum impact on wheat grain in preparation for variety milling. The results of influence on the properties of drinking water by acoustic waves in the frequency range of 10-1000 Hz for 1 minute were determined. It is established that the optimal range of exposure is the interval of 80-100 Hz. At the same time water activation is achieved, leading to changes in its properties, such as specific water resistance, electric conductivity, content of dissolved salts, which positively affects the technological indicator - the amount of conductometric ash.

Desalination Technique on Seaweeds Hydrolysate Eucheuma Cottonii for Bioethanol Production

The dissolved salts on Eucheuma cottonii hydrolysate interfere the growth of S. cerevisiae in the fermentation as it is considered as inhibitors. These salts are derived from biomass and formed from the chemicals used for hydrolysis processes such as H2SO4 and CaOH2. Ions and cations of the salts are potential as inhibitors such as Na+, Cl-, NH4+, SO42-. Osmotic pressure is raised due to the presence of salt. The efforts had been made to reduce salinity level through electrodialysis. The objective of this study was to eliminate dissolved salts in the hydrolysate in order to optimize the process of fermentation and increase ethanol yield. The results showed that the process of desalination by electrodialysis was able to reduce the salinity of 20% on the voltage of 5 V for 30 minutes; the voltage 9 V for 15 minutes; the voltage 12 V for 30 minutes. The lowest decline of SO42- occurred at treatment of 12 V for 45 minutes. The content of sulfate in the treatment decreased to 2.97 g/l or 46.22%. The more sulfate is reduced through the electrodialysis process, the better the fermentation process is carried out. Desalination treatment at a voltage of 5 V for 30 minutes had been the best treatment because it produced the highest ethanol yield of 2.06%. All the voltage treatments and the length of time on the electrodialysis process had a significant influence on the levels of ethanol yield. The process of desalination by electrodialysis was able to reduce the levels of dissolved salts, then it had a significant effect on ethanol yield.

Classification Maps for TDS Concentrations in the GIS Along Euphrates River, Iraq

Iraq currently undergoing the problem of water shortage, although Iraq has two Rivers (Euphrates and Tigris) pass throughout most of its areas, and they have represented a major source of water supply. In the current research, to evaluate the quality of the Euphrates river in Iraq based on the values of total dissolved salts (TDS), the TDS concentrations were collected from sixteen sections along the river in the three succeeding years (2011, 2012, and 2013). The evaluation of the river was done depending on the classification of (W.H.O. (World Health Organization). (2003). Total Dissolved Salts in Drinking-water: Background document for development of W.H.O. Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality. World Health Organization, 20 Avenue Appia, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland). of rivers for drinking uses. Inverse Distance Weighting Technique (IDWT) as a tool in the GIS was employed to establish the maps of the river that using interpolation/prediction for the TDS concentrations to each selected year and the average values of TDS for these 3 years. Based on the five categories of rivers’ classification of the TDS concentrations according to the (W.H.O. (World Health Organization). (2003). Total Dissolved Salts in Drinking-water: Background document for development of W.H.O. Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality. World Health Organization, 20 Avenue Appia, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland), the Euphrates river was classified, and the maps of classification for the years 2011, 2012 and 2013 and the average values for 3 years were created. The average values for 3 years of TDS along the Euphrates river indicated that the sections from SC-1 to SC-4 as moderate-water-quality-Category-3, the sections from SC-5 to SC-10 as poor-water-quality-Category-4, while the sections between SC-11 to SC-16 as very poor-water-quality-Category-5. The interpolation maps showed that the Euphrates river in Iraq was ranged from moderate water quality (Category-3) to very poor water quality (Category-5).

Automation in Monitoring of Hydroponics for Tomato

Nowadays, as the population is increasing widely, it becomes necessary for the cultivation of plants without the utilization of many land resources. There are different types of soil present on earth and different crops need different types of soils. Due to scarcity of water, it becomes difficult for the farmers to cultivate crops on land which requires a lot of water. With a hydroponic system in which the farmer has more control over plant growth, can get very high yields. In conventional methods, farmers need to monitor as well as manually control the parameters required for the efficient growth of the plants frequently. We have a sensing unit that senses various parameters like pH, Total Dissolved Salts (TDS), temperature, and humidity. The gathered information regarding these parameters is fed to the Arduino and monitored continuously. The Arduino is programmed such that whenever there is a change in these parameters from the optimum value, an alert message is sent to an android application installed in the smartphone.

Assessment of Drinking Water Purification Plant Efficiency in Al-Hassa, Eastern Region of Saudi Arabia

The quality of drinking water is an extremely important factor in public health. The main sources of drinking water in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) are bottled water, purified groundwater, and desalinated seawater. This study aimed to assess drinking water quality and evaluate the performance of water purification plants in Al-Hassa and with the aid of the water quality index (WQI). A total of 150 water samples were collected from 30 water purification plants. The physiochemical characteristics of drinking water, including the pH, TDS, EC, turbidity, free chlorine, total hardness, anions (Cl, HCO3, SO4, NO3, and F), cations (Na, K, Ca, and Mg), iron, and manganese, were investigated. The results revealed that the purified water was of acceptable quality for drinking with respect to the measured physiochemical characteristics. The overall water purification efficiency for the reduction in total dissolved salts and related anions and cations was over 90%. For instance, the average TDS values in groundwater were 1916 ± 806 mg/L, which decreased to 118 ± 32.9 mg/L in purified water. The WQI results showed that all the collected purified water samples were considered to be of excellent quality (class I) for drinking. Meanwhile, 81.7% of the untreated groundwater samples were considered to be poor quality (class III), and 11.7% were considered to be very poor quality (class IV) due to their high contents of dissolved salts. The purification of the groundwater improved its quality from very poor/poor quality (classes III and IV) to excellent water quality (class I). A Piper diagram revealed that 80% of the investigated groundwater samples were of the sodium chloride–sulfate water type. Overall, we found that the groundwater in the investigated area is not suitable for drinking purposes unless further purification techniques are applied.

MetFish: a Metabolomics Pipeline for Studying Microbial Communities in Chemically Extreme Environments

ABSTRACT Metabolites have essential roles in microbial communities, including as mediators of nutrient and energy exchange, cell-to-cell communication, and antibiosis. However, detecting and quantifying metabolites and other chemicals in samples having extremes in salt or mineral content using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS)-based methods remains a significant challenge. Here, we report a facile method based on in situ chemical derivatization followed by extraction for analysis of metabolites and other chemicals in hypersaline samples, enabling for the first time direct LC-MS-based exometabolomics analysis in sample matrices containing up to 2 M total dissolved salts. The method, MetFish, is applicable to molecules containing amine, carboxylic acid, carbonyl, or hydroxyl functional groups, and it can be integrated into either targeted or untargeted analysis pipelines. In targeted analyses, MetFish provided limits of quantification as low as 1 nM, broad linear dynamic ranges (up to 5 to 6 orders of magnitude) with excellent linearity, and low median interday reproducibility (e.g., 2.6%). MetFish was successfully applied in targeted and untargeted exometabolomics analyses of microbial consortia, quantifying amino acid dynamics in the exometabolome during community succession; in situ in a native prairie soil, whose exometabolome was isolated using a hypersaline extraction; and in input and produced fluids from a hydraulically fractured well, identifying dramatic changes in the exometabolome over time in the well. IMPORTANCE The identification and accurate quantification of metabolites using electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) in hypersaline samples is a challenge due to matrix effects. Clean-up and desalting strategies that typically work well for samples with lower salt concentrations are often ineffective in hypersaline samples. To address this gap, we developed and demonstrated a simple yet sensitive and accurate method—MetFish—using chemical derivatization to enable mass spectrometry-based metabolomics in a variety of hypersaline samples from varied ecosystems and containing up to 2 M dissolved salts.

Heating Device Based on Modified Microwave Oven: Improved to Measure Liquid Temperature by Using FBG Sensors

A prototype device based on a modified domestic microwave oven for liquid food products pasteurization is presented. This novel design has a coiling glass pipe adapted inside a microwave cavity to allow liquid continuous flow, in which several temperature optical sensors based on Fiber Bragg Grating were installed to measure, by means of contact, the circulating liquid temperature in the pipe, while the oven is on, to obtain the profile temperature as a function of time at different pipe points. The temperatures at liquid input and output were also measured with thermocouples. This device was tested to establish how well it may perform using different standardized liquids with well-known physicochemical and dielectric properties, such as water, water with dissolved sugars, water with dissolved salts, and water with dissolved sugars and salts. It could be observed that the maximum temperature reached was 90 °C for distilled water, 80 °C for water with dissolved salts, 60 °C for water with dissolved sugars and 80 °C for water with dissolved sugars and salts, showing that these data were in agreement with previous results in the literature. This type of device would be potentially useful to establish the device’s efficiency in terms of retention time, energy consumption, and volume of processed liquid, thus, broadening the use of this microwave heating technology with several types of liquid substances.

Response of Scenedesmus quadricauda (Chlorophyceae) to Salt Stress Considering Nutrient Enrichment and Intracellular Proline Accumulation

Aquatic organisms are exposed to a wide range of salinity, which could critically affect their survival and growth. However, their survival and growth response to salinity stress remain unclear. This study evaluates the growth response and intracellular proline accumulation of green algae, Scenedesmus quadricauda, isolated from brackish water, against dissolved salts stress with N and P enrichment. We tested a hypothesis that nutrient enrichment can relieve the dissolved salts stress of algae by accumulating intracellular proline, thereby improving survival and growth. Four levels of salinity (0, 3, 6, 12 psu) were experimentally manipulated with four levels of nutrient stoichiometry (N:P ratio = 2, 5, 10, 20) at constant N (1 mgN/L) or P levels (0.05 and 0.5 mgP/L). In each set of experiments, growth rate and intracellular proline content were measured in triplicate. The highest level of salinity inhibited the growth rate of S. quadricauda, regardless of the nutrient levels. However, with nutrient enrichment, the alga showed tolerance to dissolved salts, reflecting intracellular proline synthesis. Proline accumulation was most prominent at the highest salinity level, and its maximum value appeared at the highest N:P ratio (i.e., highest N level) in all salinity treatments, regardless of P levels. Therefore, the effects of P and N on algal response to salt stress differ.