Free cupric ions in contaminated agricultural soils around a copper mine in eastern Nanjing City, China

To determine the environmental free metal ion activity was a recent hot issue. A method to measure low-level free cupric ion activity in soil solution extracted with 0.01 mol/L KNO3 was developed by using cupric ion-selective electrode （ISE） and calibrating with Cu-buffer solution. Three copper buffers including iminodiacetic acid （IDA）, ethylenediamine （EN）, and glycine （Gly） were compared for calibrating the Cu-ISE curves in the range of free cupric ions （pCu^2＋） 7-13. The Cu-EN buffer showed the best electrode response and thus was applied as the calibration buffer. The pCu^2＋ of 39 contaminated agricultural soils around a copper mine was measured, ranging from 5.03 to 9.20. Most Cu in the soil solutions was found to be complexed with dissolved soil organic matters, averaging 98.1%. The proportion of free Cu^2＋ ions in the soil solutions decreased with the increasing of solution pH. Soluble Cu and free Cu^2＋ ions concentrations were analyzed by multiple linear regressions to evaluate the effects of soil properties on metal levels and speciation. The results showed that soil solution pH was the most significant factor influencing pCu^2＋ （with R^2 value of 0.76）, while not important for the soluble Cu concentration.

EFFECT OF METAL IONS ON ACTIVITY OF INTERLEUKIN-2

1 IntrodutionInterleukin-2(IL-2)was found to selectively keep growth of T lymphocytes for longperiod in vitro in 1976,and was then named T cell growth factor,TCGF.After that,IL-2 was found to promote proliferation of various cells,mainly including T,B,NK,and to in-crease activity of T cell and NK cell.Discovery of its surprising effect in treatment of can-cer,tumor through inducing LAK(lymphokine-activated killer cells)or activating TIL(tumor infiltrated lymphocytes)to kill cancer cell made it very attractive.Therefore it wasfound a wide application in therapy of cancer,immunodeficiency and diseases relating toinfection.However,in its application,problem was found that it had very serious side-effect,and very high dose made the side effect even more serious.The aim of this study was to find a simple way to stabilize IL-2 so as to lower the doserequired in application and in turn to solve the problem.

New insight into adsorption characteristics and mechanisms of the biosorbent from waste activated sludge for heavy metals

The adsorption characteristics and mechanisms of the biosorbent from waste activated sludge were investigated by adsorbing Pb2＋and Zn2＋in aqueous single-metal solutions. A p H value of the metal solutions at 6.0 was beneficial to the high adsorption quantity of the biosorbent. The optimal mass ratio of the biosorbent to metal ions was found to be 2. A higher adsorption quantity of the biosorbent was achieved by keeping the reaction temperature below 55°C. Response surface methodology was applied to optimize the biosorption processes, and the developed mathematical equations showed high determination coefficients（above 0.99 for both metal ions） and insignificant lack of fit（p = 0.0838 and 0.0782 for Pb2＋and Zn2＋, respectively）. Atomic force microscopy analyses suggested that the metal elements were adsorbed onto the biosorbent surface via electrostatic interaction. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses indicated the presence of complexation（between –NH2,-CN and metal ions） and ion-exchange（between –COOH and metal ions）. The adsorption mechanisms could be the combined action of electrostatic interaction, complexation and ion-exchange between functional groups and metal ions.

The biological effect of metal ions on the granulation of aerobic granular activated sludge

As a special biofilm structure,microbial attachment is believed to play an important role in the granulation of aerobic granular activated sludge（AGAS）.This experiment was to investigate the biological effect of Ca^2＋,Mg^2＋,Cu^2＋,Fe^2＋,Zn^2＋,and K＋which are the most common ions present in biological wastewater treatment systems,on the microbial attachment of AGAS and flocculent activated sludge（FAS）,from which AGAS is always derived,in order to provide a new strategy for the rapid cultivation and stability control of AGAS.The result showed that attachment biomass of AGAS was about 300%higher than that of FAS without the addition of metal ions.Different metal ions had different effects on the process of microbial attachment.FAS and AGAS reacted differently to the metal ions as well,and in fact,AGAS was more sensitive to the metal ions.Specifically,Ca^2＋,Mg^2＋,and K＋could increase the microbial attachment ability of both AGAS and FAS under appropriate concentrations,Cu^2＋,Fe^2＋,and Zn^2＋were also beneficial to the microbial attachment of FAS at low concentrations,but Cu^2＋,Fe^2＋,and Zn^2＋greatly inhibited the attachment process of AGAS even at extremely low concentrations.In addition,the acylated homoserine lactone（AHL）-based quorum sensing system,the content of extracellular polymeric substances and the relative hydrophobicity of the sludges were greatly influenced by metal ions.As all these parameters had close relationships with the microbial attachment process,the microbial attachment may be affected by changes of these parameters.