Biological activities of gastropods secretions:snail and slug slime

Gastropods,a mollusk class including slugs and snails,represent an extraordinarily diverse and ecologically significant group of organisms featuring the largest class of invertebrates.They can be classified as aquatic and terrestrial animals having coiled shells,although some species have reduced or absent shells.Their unique body structure includes a muscular foot for locomotion,a visceral mass containing essential organs,and a distinct head region with sensory organs such as tentacles and eyes.They are used to secrete a complex mixture of glycoproteins,enzymes,peptides,mucus and other bioactive compounds,namely slime,which represents a tool to allow locomotion,protection,and interaction within different habitats.The biological activities of the slime have attracted considerable interest due to their diverse and potentially valuable properties ranging from defense mechanisms to potential therapeutic applications in wound healing,antimicrobial therapy,management of inflammation,and neurological disorders.This review aims at exploring the beneficial effects of snail and slug slime focusing,in particular,on the improvement of the biological processes underlying them.Continued exploration of the intricate components of these slimy secretions promises to discover new bioactive molecules with diverse applications in various scientific and industrial fields.

An Improved Elite Slime Mould Algorithm for Engineering Design

The Swarm intelligence algorithm is a very prevalent field in which some scholars have made outstanding achievements.As a representative,Slime mould algorithm(SMA)is widely used because of its superior initial performance.Therefore,this paper focuses on the improvement of the SMA and the mitigation of its stagnation problems.For this aim,the structure of SMA is adjusted to develop the efficiency of the original method.As a stochastic optimizer,SMA mainly stimulates the behavior of slime mold in nature.For the harmony of the exploration and exploitation of SMA,the paper proposed an enhanced algorithm of SMA called ECSMA,in which two mechanisms are embedded into the structure:elite strategy,and chaotic stochastic strategy.The details of the original SMA and the two introduced strategies are given in this paper.Then,the advantages of the improved SMA through mechanism comparison,balance-diversity analysis,and contrasts with other counterparts are validated.The experimental results demonstrate that both mechanisms have a significant enhancing effect on SMA.Also,SMA is applied to four structural design issues of the welded beam design problem,PV design problem,I-beam design problem,and cantilever beam design problem with excellent results.

Ash Detection of Coal Slime Flotation Tailings Based on Chromatographic Filter Paper Sampling and Multi-Scale Residual Network

The detection of ash content in coal slime flotation tailings using deep learning can be hindered by various factors such as foam,impurities,and changing lighting conditions that disrupt the collection of tailings images.To address this challenge,we present a method for ash content detection in coal slime flotation tailings.This method utilizes chromatographic filter paper sampling and a multi-scale residual network,which we refer to as MRCN.Initially,tailings are sampled using chromatographic filter paper to obtain static tailings images,effectively isolating interference factors at the flotation site.Subsequently,the MRCN,consisting of a multi-scale residual network,is employed to extract image features and compute ash content.Within the MRCN structure,tailings images undergo convolution operations through two parallel branches that utilize convolution kernels of different sizes,enabling the extraction of image features at various scales and capturing a more comprehensive representation of the ash content information.Furthermore,a channel attention mechanism is integrated to enhance the performance of the model.The combination of the multi-scale residual structure and the channel attention mechanism within MRCN results in robust capabilities for image feature extraction and ash content detection.Comparative experiments demonstrate that this proposed approach,based on chromatographic filter paper sampling and the multi-scale residual network,exhibits significantly superior performance in the detection of ash content in coal slime flotation tailings.

Removal and stabilization of arsenic from anode slime by forming crystal scorodite

A process was proposed for removing and stabilizing arsenic(As) from anode slime. The anode slime with high arsenic concentration was pretreated by circular alkaline leaching process. Then, the arsenic in the leaching solution can be further precipitated as a form of scorodite crystalline(FeAsO4·2H2O). In the precipitating arsenic reaction, in which ferrous ions were oxidized by air gas, the effects of acidity(p H), reaction temperature, air flow rate, initial concentration of arsenic and initial molar ratio of Fe(II) to As(V) on arsenic precipitation were investigated. The results showed that sufficiently stable crystal scorodite could be achieved under the condition of initial arsenic concentration of 10 g/L, pH 3.0-4.0, Fe/As molar ratio of 1.5, the temperature of 80-95 °C, and the air flow rate higher than 120 L/h. Under the optimal condition, more than 78% of arsenic could be precipitated as a form of scorodite crystalline. The As leaching concentration of the precipitates was less than 2.0 mg/L and the precipitates may be considered to be safe for disposal.

Sequential removal of selenium and tellurium from copper anode slime with high nickel content

A process using soda roasting-alkaline leaching-acid leaching to remove selenium, tellurium and copper sequentially from the copper anode slime with high content of Ni was tested. The mechanism of this process was outlined based on thermodynamic analysis and the change in the XRD patterns of different intermediate products. During soda roasting, copper which occurs as Cu4SeTe in the slime was oxidized to CuO and Cu3TeO6, while selenium and tellurium were oxidized to Ag2SeO4 and Cu3TeO6, respectively. Ag2SeO4 in the calcine is easily leached in the subsequent alkaline leaching, but CuTeO3 resulted from the decomposition of CCu3TeO6 remains inactive in this process through which selenium is leached out in preference to tellurium. The CuTeO3 and Cu O in the alkaline leaching residue can be leached in the following sulfuric acid leaching process. More than 97% of selenium was leached with little tellurium leached under the optimal condition. Then, more than 96% of copper and almost all the tellurium were leached out in the following acid leaching process.

Occurrence of lead and silver minerals and their interaction with xanthate in slurry of zinc electrolysis anode slime

The background pulp potential of zinc anode slime,and its influence on the occurrence of lead,silver and xanthate,were investigated with thermodynamic method.The thermodynamic conclusion and XRD analysis pointed out that in zinc anode slime,the thermodynamically stable compound of xanthate is dixanthogen,anglesite is the only mineral of lead,and kerargyrite is one of silver minerals occurring.Microflotation tests on single minerals of anglesite and kerargyrite in sulfuric acid solution by amyl dixanthogen indicated that dixanthogen has a much stronger collecting ability to kerargyrite than to anglesite.Molecular dynamic simulation indicated that amyl dixanthogen can only be adsorbed on the surface of kerargyrite in the presence of SO42-.The FTIR tests also verified the selective adsorption of amyl dixanthogen on the surface of kerargyrite in the presence of SO42-.

Optimization on selenium and arsenic conversion from copper anode slime by low-temperature alkali fusion process

A process was proposed to convert and separate selenium and arsenic in copper anode slime(CAS) by low-temperature alkali fusion process.Central composite design was employed to optimize the effective parameters,in which Na OH/CAS mass ratio,fusion temperature and fusion time were selected as variables,and the conversion ratio of selenium and arsenic as responses.Second-order polynomial models of high significance and 3D response surface plots were constructed to show the relationship between the responses and the variables.Optimum area of >90% selenium conversion ratio and >90% arsenic conversion ratio was obtained by the overlaid contours at Na OH/CAS mass ratio of 0.65-0.75,fusion temperature of 803-823 K and fusion time of 20-30 min.The models are validated by experiments in the optimum area,and the results demonstrate that these models are reliable and accurate in predicting the fusion process.

Rheological behaviors of coal slime produced by filter-pressing

It is an effective way to use coal slime as fuel for circulating fluidized bed boilers, which will not only solve its pollution to the environment, but also turn waste to treasure. In order to provide basic technical information for transportation of coal slime from the coal preparation plant to the boiler, this paper experimentally studied the rheological behaviors of coal slime produced by filter-pressing. By using a rotational viscometer, the influences of water content, temperature, and shear time on the rheological behaviors of coal slime were investigated. Experimental results show that the coal slime will behave like Bingham plastics with low water content and like Bingham pseudo-plastics with 37.5% water content,while like pseudo-plastics with 40% water content. This indicates that the water content of coal slime must be controlled in consideration of both transportation resistance and combustion efficiency. Study results also show that, the apparent viscosity of coal slime at 5℃ is about 1.5–1.7 times of that at 40℃ for water contents 32%–37.5%, while the influence of temperature can be neglected when the water content is 40%. With increasing of water content, the influences of shear time on the apparent viscosity of coal slime becomes less. When the water content is more than 30%, the effect of shear time is negligible. It indicates that water content has the most important influence on the rheological behaviors of coal slime. There must be an optimal water content in considering conveying resistance and combustion efficiency. The environmental temperature must also be considered in coal slime transportation.

Alkaline pressure oxidative leaching of bismuth-rich and arsenic-rich lead anode slime

A new alkaline pressure oxidative leaching process(with NaNO3 as the oxidant and NaOH as the alkaline reagent)is proposed herein to remove arsenic,antimony,and lead from bismuth-rich and arsenic-rich lead anode slime for bismuth,gold,and silver enrichment.The effects of the temperature,liquid-to-solid ratio,leaching time,and reagent concentration on the leaching ratios of arsenic,antimony,and lead were investigated to identify the optimum leaching conditions.The experimental results under optimized conditions indicate that the average leaching ratios of arsenic,antimony and lead are 95.36%,79.98%,63.08%,respectively.X-ray diffraction analysis indicated that the leaching residue is composed of Bi,Bi2O3,Pb2Sb2O7,and trace amounts of NaSb(OH)6.Arsenic,antimony,and lead are thus separated from lead anode slime as Na3AsO4·10H2O and Pb2Sb2O7.Scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive spectrometry imaging revealed that the samples undergo appreciable changes in their surface morphology during leaching and that the majority of arsenic,lead,and antimony is removed.X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was used to demonstrate the variation in the valence states of the arsenic,lead,and antimony.The Pb(IV)and Sb(V)content was found to increase substantially with the addition of NaNO3.

Optimum conditions to treat high-concentration microparticle slime water with bioflocculants

We studied how bioflocculants,produced by white-rot fungi,affect flocculation in slime water.Based on a test in an orthogonal design,flocculation conditions were optimized.The results show that flocculation activity is at its highest when the following conditions are met:slime water concentration 27.42 g/L;coagulant aid(CaCl_2) mass concentration 5.0 g/L;two-segment stirrings:the first at a stirring speed of 60 r/min for 180 s and the second 180 r/min for 60 s;a pH of 11 and a flocculant concentration of 15 mL/L.The flocculation activity can be up to 98.71%of bioflocculants at the time.Further experiments indicate that most of the flocculation active material is found outside the mycelium cells.This is the extracellular secretion produced by mycelium cells during the fermentation process.This flocculant has strong thermal stability.Many kinds of cations have a flocculation function to assist bioflocculants.This aid-flocculation effect of the divalent cation Ca^(2+) is obvious in the bioflocculant produced by the white-rot fungus.Therefore,this is of great value when applied to control engineering in the battle against water pollution.

Extended DLVO theory applied to coal slime-water suspensions

Coal slimes are mainly composed of coal and clay particles.The interaction energies among these particles were calculated using extended DLVO(DERJAGUIN-LANDAU-VERWEY-OVERBEEK)theory and the aggregation mechanisms were analyzed based on the settling experiments for coal-kaolinite and coal-montmorillonite suspensions,respectively,under different conditions of water hardness.The results indicate that for coal-kaolinite suspensions,as the water hardness reaches 10.0mol/L,the coal particles aggregate with each other easily,and then,the coal particles may aggregate with kaolinite particles.However,no aggregation occurs between kaolinite particles.A clay platelet network is formed in coal-montmorillonite suspensions by montmorillonite particles and coal particles are captured into the network.Coal and montmorillonite particles settle completely.

Intensification of pretreatment and pressure leaching of copper anode slime by microwave radiation

The application of microwave irradiation for pretreatment of copper anode slime with high nickel content prior to pressure sulfuric acid leaching has been proposed.The microwave-assisted pretreatment is a rapid and efficient process.Through the technology of microwave assisted pretreatment-pressure leaching of copper anode slime,copper,tellurium,selenium and nickel are almost completely recovered.Under optimal conditions,the leaching efficiencies of copper,tellurium,selenium and nickel are 97.12%,95.97%,95.37% and 93.90%,respectively.The effect of microwave radiation on the temperature of copper anode slime and leaching solution is investigated.It is suggested that the enhancement on the recoveries of copper,tellurium and selenium can be attributed to the temperature gradient which is caused by shallow microwave penetration depth and super heating occurring at the solid–liquid interface.The kinetic study shows that the pressure leaching of copper anode slime,with and without microwave assisted pretreatment,are both controlled by chemical reactions on the surfaces of particles.It is found that the activation energy calculated for microwave-assisted pretreatment-pressure leaching(49.47 kJ/mol) is lower than that for pressure leaching which is without microwave assisted pretreatment(60.57 kJ/mol).

Leaching kinetics of selenium from copper anode slimes by nitric acid-sulfuric acid mixture

The leaching kinetics of selenium from copper anode slimes was studied in a nitric acid?sulfuric acid mixture.The effects of main parameters on selenium leaching showed that the leaching rate of selenium was practically independent of stirring speed,while dependent on temperature and the concentrations of HNO3and H2SO4.The leaching of selenium includes two stages.The activation energy in the first stage is103.5kJ/mol,and the chemical reaction is the rate controlling step.It was almost independent of H2SO4concentration and dependent on HNO3concentration since the empirical reaction order with respect to HNO3concentration is0.5613.In the second stage,the activation energy is30.6kJ/mol,and the process is controlled by a mixture of diffusion and chemical reaction.The leaching of selenium was almost independent of HNO3concentration.

Preparation of pure SbCl_3 from lead anode slime bearing high antimony and low silver

A novel treatment process of lead anode slime bearing high antimony and low silver was developed by a potential-controlled chloridization leaching and continuous distillation.The experimental results show a high Sb 3+ concentration,489.2 g/L,in the leaching solution for two-stage countercurrent leaching process,and the leaching rates of Sb,Cu,Bi more than 99% when the potential is controlled at 450 mV.When the leaching solution is distillated and concentrated at 120°C,almost all the silicon compound is evaporated into the concentration distillate and exists as amorphous hydrated silica.By the continuous distillation,high pure SbCl3 could be prepared,and AsCl3 is enriched in the distillate while metals Bi,Cu are enriched in the continuous distillation residue.As a result,the recovery rate of Sb is more than 95%.

Separation and recovery of copper in Cu-As-bearing copper electrorefining black slime by oxidation acid leaching and sulfide precipitation

A new hydrometallurgical route for separation and recovery of Cu from Cu-As-bearing copper electrorefining black slime was developed. The proposed process comprised oxidation acid leaching of Cu-As-bearing slime and selective sulfide precipitation of Cu from the leachate. The effects of various process parameters on the leaching and precipitation of Cu and As were investigated. At the first stage, Cu extraction of 95.2% and As extraction of 97.6% were obtained at 80 ℃ after 4 h with initial H2 SO4 concentration of 1.0 mol/L and liquid-to-solid ratio of 10 mL/g. In addition, the leaching kinetics of Cu and As was successfully reproduced by the Avrami model, and the apparent activation energies were found to be 33.6 and 35.1 kJ/mol for the Cu and As leaching reaction, respectively, suggesting a combination of chemical reaction and diffusion control. During the selective sulfide precipitation, about 99.4% Cu was recovered as CuS, while only 0.1% As was precipitated under the optimal conditions using sulfide-to-copper ratio of 2.4:1, time of 1.5 h and temperature of 25 ℃.

φ-pH diagram of As-N-Na-H_2O system for arsenic removal during alkaline pressure oxidation leaching of lead anode slime

In order to illustrate the thermodynamic characteristics of arsenic during alkaline pressure oxidation leaching process oflead anode slime(NaNO3as oxidant;NaOH as alkaline reagent),theφ-pH diagrams of As-Na-H2O,N-H2O,As-N-Na-H2Osystems at ionic mass concentration of0.1mol/kg and temperatures of298,373,423and473K were established according tothermodynamic calculation.The results show that the existence forms of arsenic are associated with pH value,which mainly exists inthe forms of H3AsO4,24H AsO-,24HAsO-,H2AsO2-and As2O3in lower pH region,while it mainly exists in the form of3AsO4-when pH>11.14.High alkali concentration and high temperature are advantageous to the arsenic leaching.The alkaline pressureoxidation leaching experiments display that the tendency of arsenic leaching rate confirms the thermodynamic analysis resultsobtained from theφ-pH diagrams of As-N-Na-H2O system,and the highest leaching rate of arsenic reaches95.85%at453K.

Selective extraction of gold(Ⅲ) from hydrochloric acid-chlorine gas leach solutions of copper anode slime by tri-butyl phosphate(TBP)

The oxidative leaching causes to dissolve various impurities such as Fe, Cu, Pd, Se in copper anode slime. Organicextractant tri-butyl phosphate (TBP) was used to purify leach solution. Several parameters, such as TBP, HCl and chloride inorganicsalt concentrations were chosen in order to determine efficient state for impurities separation. Standard solvent extraction tests forextraction and separation of Au, Pd, Pt, Fe, Cu and Se were conducted with equal volume of aqueous and organic phases in batchexperiments. The effect of hydrochloric acid, organic phase and metals initial concentration were examined at ambient temperature. Itwas found that 0.25 mol/L TBP in the presence of 2.5 mol/L hydrochloric acid can cause high extraction of gold. Meanwhile, in theseconditions the extraction of other impurities is negligible. After extraction, pregnant organic phase was scrubbed by distilled waterand some impurities were removed. Finally, gold was stripped by sodium thiosulfate solution. The stripping solution does not haveany impurities. By adding H2SO4 to stripping solution containing Na2S2O2, SO2 gas is released and Au3+ ions could be reduced.

Ultra fast microwave-assisted leaching for the recovery of copper and tellurium from copper anode slime

The decomposition of copper anode slime heated by microwave energy in a sulfuric acid medium was investigated. Leaching experiments were carried out in a multi-mode cavity with microwave assistance. The leaching process parameters were optimized using response surface methodology（RSM）. Under the optimized conditions, the leaching efficiencies of copper and tellurium were 99.56% ± 0.16% and 98.68% ± 0.12%, respectively. Meanwhile, a conventional leaching experiment was performed in order to evaluate the influence of microwave radiation. The mechanism of microwave-assisted leaching of copper anode slime was also investigated. In the results, the microwave technology is demonstrated to have a great potential to improve the leaching efficiency and reduce the leaching time. The enhanced recoveries of copper and tellurium are believed to result from the presence of a temperature gradient due to the shallow microwave penetration depth and the superheating at the solid-liquid interface.

Dolochar as a reductant in the reduction roasting of iron ore slimes

The present investigation examines the viability of dolochar, a sponge iron industry waste material, as a reductant in the reduction roasting of iron ore slimes, which are another waste generated by iron ore beneficiation plants. Under statistically determined optimum conditions, which include a temperature of 900°C, a reductant-to-feed mass ratio of 0.35, and a reduction time of 30–45 min, the roasted mass, after being subjected to low-intensity magnetic separation, yielded an iron ore concentrate of approximately 64 wt% Fe at a mass recovery of approximately 71% from the feed iron ore slime assaying 56.2 wt% Fe. X-ray diffraction analyses indicated that the magnetic products contain magnetite and hematite as the major phases, whereas the nonmagnetic fractions contain quartz and hematite.

Slime coating of kaolinite on chalcopyrite in saline water flotation

In saline water flotation, the salinity can cause a distinguishable slime coating of clay minerals on chalcopyrite particles through its effect on their electrical double layers in aqueous solutions. In this work, kaolinite was used as a representative clay mineral for studying slime coating during chalcopyrite flotation. The flotation of chalcopyrite in the presence and absence of kaolinite in tap water, seawater, and gypsum-saturated water and the stability of chalcopyrite and kaolinite particles in slurries are presented. Zeta-potential distributions and scanning electron microscopy images were used to characterize and explain the different slime coating degrees and the different flotation performances. Kaolinite particles induced slime coating on chalcopyrite surfaces and reduced chalcopyrite floatability to the greatest extent when the p H value was in the alkaline range. At 0.24 wt% of kaolinite, the chalcopyrite floatability was depressed by more than 10% at alkaline p H levels in tap water. Salinity in seawater and gypsum-saturated water compressed the electrical double layers and resulted in extensive slime coating.