Biosorption characteristics of unicellular green alga Chlorella sorokiniana immobilized in loofa sponge for removal of Cr(Ⅲ)

Loofa sponge （LS） immobilized biomass of Chlorella sorokiniana （LSIBCS）, isolated from industrial wastewater, was investigated as a new biosorbent for the removal of Cr（Ⅲ） from aqueous solution. A comparison of the biosorption of Cr（Ⅲ） by LSIBCS and free biomass of C. sorokiniana （FBCS） from 10-300 mg Cr（Ⅲ）/L aqueous solutions showed an increase in uptake of 17.79% when the microalgal biomass was immobilized onto loofa sponge. Maximum biosorption capacity for LSIBCS and FBCS was found to be 69.26 and 58.80 mg Cr（Ⅲ）/g biosorbent, respectively, whereas the amount of Cr（Ⅲ） ions adsorbed onto naked LS was 4.97 mg/g. The kinetics of Cr（Ⅲ） biosorption was extremely rapid and equilibrium was established in about 15 and 20 min by LSIBCS and FBCS, respectively. The biosorption equilibrium was well defined by Langmuir adsorption isotherm model. The biosorption kinetics followed the pseudo-second order kinetic model. The biosorption was found to be pH dependent and the maximum sorption occurred at the solution pH 4.0. Desorption studies showed that 98% of the adsorbed Cr（Ⅲ） could be desorbed with 0.1 mol/L HNO3, while other desorbing agents were less effective in the order： EDTA 〉 H2SO4 〉 CH3COOH 〉 HCl. The regenerated LSIBCS retained 92.68% of the initial Cr（Ⅲ） binding capacity up to five cycles of reuse in continuous flow-fixed bed columns. The study revealed that LSIBCS could be used as an effective biosorbent for the removal of Cr（Ⅲ） from wastewater.

Ethnopharmacological Survey of Plants Used for the Treatment of Stomach,Diabetes,and Ophthalmic Diseases in Sudhan Gali,Kashmir,Pakistan

The present paper represents the ethnopharmacological survey of Sudhan Gali,Kashmir,Pakistan.The study revealed that 12 plant species belonging to 11 families were used for the treatment of stomach,diabetes and ophthalmic diseases by the local people in Sudhan Gali.Achillea millefolium,Aconitum heterophyllum,Berberis lycium,Polygonum amplexicaule,Mentha longifolia,Paeonia emodi,Plantago lanceolata were locally used for stomach related problems treatment;Berberis lycium,Skimmia lareola,Solanum dulcamara for diabetes and Geranium wallichianum,Artemisia vulgaris,Solanum dulcamara,and Corydalis crassifolia used for the treatment of ophthalmic diseases.Two species Berberis lycium and Solanum dulcamara have multipurpose value.Former is used to treat stomach as well as diabetes while latter is used to treat not only to diabetes but also ophthalmic diseases.According to IUCN categories,out of these 12 plant species collected and marketed,Polygonum amplexicaule and Paeonia emodi are endangered,Aconitum heterophyllum;Berberis lycium species are vulnerable while Plantago lanceolata and Skimmia lareola species are rare.The availability of these medicinal plants has decreased during the past 20 years and these are facing a drastic biotic pressure due to their extensive usage and non-scientific methods of collection.It is quite evident that these valuable native medicinal plants species are going to decline in number and ultimately will become extinct if no timely proper conservation strategies are adopted.

A Few Integrable Dynamical Systems,Recurrence Operators,Expanding Integrable Models and Hamiltonian Structures by the r-Matrix Method

We extend two known dynamical systems obtained by Blaszak, et al. via choosing Casimir functions and utilizing Novikov–Lax equation so that a series of novel dynamical systems including generalized Burgers dynamical system, heat equation, and so on, are followed to be generated. Then we expand some differential operators presented in the paper to deduce two types of expanding dynamical models. By taking the generalized Burgers dynamical system as an example, we deform its expanding model to get a half-expanding system, whose recurrence operator is derived from Lax representation, and its Hamiltonian structure is also obtained by adopting a new way. Finally, we expand the generalized Burgers dynamical system to the(2+1)-dimensional case whose Hamiltonian structure is derived by Poisson tensor and gradient of the Casimir function. Besides, a kind of(2+1)-dimensional expanding dynamical model of the(2+1)-dimensional dynamical system is generated as well.