Spatial Variations in Particle Size and Magnetite Concentration on Cedar Beach:Implications for Grain-Sorting Processes,Western Lake Erie,Canada

This study examined spatial variations in the concentration,grain size and heavy mineral assemblages on Cedar Beach（Lake Erie,Canada）.Magnetic studies of heavy mineral-enriched,dark-reddish sands present on the beach showed that magnetite（～150μm） is the dominant magnetic mineral.Surficial magnetic susceptibility values defined three zones：a lakeward region close to the water line（Zone 1）,the upper swash zone（Zone 2） and the region landwards of the upper swash zone （Zone 3）.Zone 2 showed the highest bulk and mass susceptibility（κ,χ） and the highest mass percentage of smaller grain-size（250μm） fractions in the bulk sand sample.Susceptibility（i.e.κandχ） values decreased and grain size coarsened from Zone 2 lakewards（into Zone 1） and landwards （into Zone 3）,and correlated with the distribution of the heavy mineral assemblage,most probably reflecting preferential separation of large,less dense particles by waves and currents both along and across the beach.The eroded western section of Cedar Beach showed much higher concentrations of heavy minerals including magnetite,and finer sand grain sizes than the accreting eastern section, suggesting that magnetic techniques could be used as a rapid,cost-effective way of examining erosion along sensitive coastline areas.

Efficient concentration of trace analyte with ordered hotspot construction for a robust and sensitive SERS platform

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering(SERS)platform,which enables trace analyte detection,has important application prospects.By structuring/modifying the surface of the SERSsubstrate,analyte in highly diluted solutions can be concentrated into localized active areas for highly sensitive detection.However,subject to the difficulty of the fabrication process,itremains challenging to balance hot-spot construction and the concentration capacity of analyte simultaneously.Therefore,preparing SERS substrates with densely ordered hot spots andefficient concentration capacity is of great significance for highly sensitive detection.Herein,we propose an Ag and fluoroalkyl-modified hierarchical armour substrate(Ag/F-HA),which has a double-layer stacking design to combine analyte concentration with hotspot construction.The microarmour structure is fabricated by femtosecond-laser processing to serve as asuperhydrophobic and low-adhesive surface to concentrate analyte,while the anodic aluminium oxide(AAO)template creates a nanopillar array serving as dense and ordered hot spots.Under the synergistic action of hot spots and analyte concentration,Ag/F-HA achieves a detectionlimit down to 10^(-7)M doxorubicin(DOX)molecules with a RSD of 7.69%.Additionally,Ag/F-HA exhibits excellent robustness to resist external disturbances such as liquid splash or abrasion.Based on our strategy,SERS substrates with directional analyte concentrations are further explored by patterning microcone arrays with defects.This work opens a way to the realistic implementation of SERS in diverse scenarios.

On-line estimation of concentration parameters in fermentation processes

It has long been thought that bioprocess, with their inherent measurement difficulties and complex dynamics, posed almost insurmountable problems to engineers. A novel software sensor is proposed to make more effective use of those meas- urements that are already available, which enable improvement in fermentation process control. The proposed method is based on mixtures of Gaussian processes (GP) with expectation maximization (EM) algorithm employed for parameter estimation of mixture of models. The mixture model can alleviate computational complexity of GP and also accord with changes of operating condition in fermentation processes, i.e., it would certainly be able to examine what types of process-knowledge would be most relevant for local models’ specific operating points of the process and then combine them into a global one. Demonstrated by on-line estimate of yeast concentration in fermentation industry as an example, it is shown that soft sensor based state estimation is a powerful technique for both enhancing automatic control performance of biological systems and implementing on-line moni- toring and optimization.

Modeling of an Automatic Optimization System of Cyanide Concentration in Carbon in Leach for Optimal Ore Processing in a Mining Company

The optimization system, which was the subject of our study, is an autonomous chain for the automatic management of cyanide consumption. It is in the phase of industrial automation which made it possible to use the machines in order to reduce the workload of the worker while keeping a high productivity and a quality in great demand. Furthermore, the use of cyanide in leaching tanks is a necessity in the gold recovery process. This consumption of cyanide must be optimal in these tanks in order to have a good recovery while controlling the concentration of cyanide. Cyanide is one of the most expensive products for mining companies. On a completely different note, we see huge variations during the addition of cyanide. Following a recommendation from the metallurgical and operations teams, the control team carried out an analysis of the problem while proposing a solution to reduce the variability around plus or minus 10% of the addition setpoint through automation. It should be noted that this automatic optimization by monitoring the concentration of cyanide, made use of industrial automation which is a technique which ensures the operation of the ore processing chain without human intervention. In other words, it made it possible to substitute a machine for man. So, this leads us to conduct a study on concentration levels in the real world. The results show that the analysis of the modeling of the cyanide consumption optimization system is an appropriate solution to eradicate failures in the mineral processing chain. The trend curves demonstrate this resolution perfectly.

Basic characteristics of Australian iron ore concentrate and its effects on sinter properties during the high-limonite sintering process

The basic characteristics of Australian iron ore concentrate (Ore-A) and its effects on sinter properties during a high-limonite sintering process were studied using micro-sinter and sinter pot methods. The results show that the Ore-A exhibits good granulation properties, strong liquid flow capability, high bonding phase strength and crystal strength, but poor assimilability. With increasing Ore-A ratio, the tumbler index and the reduction index (RI) of the sinter first increase and then decrease, whereas the softening interval (Delta T) and the softening start temperature (T (10%)) of the sinter exhibit the opposite behavior; the reduction degradation index (RDI+3.15) of the sinter increases linearly, but the sinter yield exhibits no obvious effects. With increasing Ore-A ratio, the distribution and crystallization of the minerals are improved, the main bonding phase first changes from silico-ferrite of calcium and aluminum (SFCA) to kirschsteinite, silicate, and SFCA and then transforms to 2CaO center dot SiO2 and SFCA. Given the utilization of Ore-A and the improvement of the sinter properties, the Ore-A ratio in the high-limonite sintering process is suggested to be controlled at approximately 6wt%.

Thermodynamic simulation of complex Pb-Bi concentrate oxidative bath smelting process

The element partitioning in a Pb-Bi concentrate oxygen-rich bath smelting process was studied using thermodynamic equilibrium simulation method. Effects of oxygen to feed ratio(OFR) and sulfur dioxide partial pressure(pSO2) on the partitionings of Bi, Pb, As, Sb, Cu and Ag were analyzed and compared with industrial data. The results suggested that the optimal OFR was between 6.3 and 6.8 kmol/t to maximize Bi, Pb, Cu and Ag partitioning in the metal phase. Further increase of OFR led to the drop of metal partitioning and increase of slag liquidus temperature. High pSO2 led to high deportment of Bi and Pb in the gas phase mainly in the form of sulfides, suggesting that a low pSO2 was conducive for reducing the dust ratio.

A 3D-printed microfluidic gradient concentration chip for rapid antibiotic-susceptibility testing

The rise of antibiotic resistance as one of the most serious global public health threats has necessitated the timely clinical diagnosis and precise treatment of deadly bacterial infections.To identify which types and doses of antibiotics remain effective for fighting against multi-drug-resistant pathogens,the development of rapid and accurate antibiotic-susceptibility testing(AST)is of primary importance.Conventional methods for AST in well-plate formats with disk diffusion or broth dilution are both labor-intensive and operationally tedious.The microfluidic chip provides a versatile tool for evaluating bacterial AST and resistant behaviors.In this paper,we develop an operationally simple,3D-printed microfluidic chip for AST which automatically deploys antibiotic concentration gradients and fluorescence intensity-based reporting to ideally reduce the report time for AST to within 5 h.By harnessing a commercially available,digital light processing(DLP)3D printing method that offers a rapid,high-precision microfluidic chip-manufacturing capability,we design and realize the accurate generation of on-chip antibiotic concentration gradients based on flow resistance and diffusion mechanisms.We further demonstrate the employment of the microfluidic chip for the AST of E.coli to representative clinical antibiotics of three classes:ampicillin,chloramphenicol,and kanamycin.The determined minimum inhibitory concentration values are comparable to those reported by conventional well-plate methods.Our proposed method demonstrates a promising approach for realizing robust,convenient,and automatable AST of clinical bacterial pathogens.

A Self-Organizing RBF Neural Network Based on Distance Concentration Immune Algorithm

Radial basis function neural network(RBFNN) is an effective algorithm in nonlinear system identification. How to properly adjust the structure and parameters of RBFNN is quite challenging. To solve this problem, a distance concentration immune algorithm(DCIA) is proposed to self-organize the structure and parameters of the RBFNN in this paper. First, the distance concentration algorithm, which increases the diversity of antibodies, is used to find the global optimal solution. Secondly,the information processing strength(IPS) algorithm is used to avoid the instability that is caused by the hidden layer with neurons split or deleted randomly. However, to improve the forecasting accuracy and reduce the computation time, a sample with the most frequent occurrence of maximum error is proposed to regulate the parameters of the new neuron. In addition, the convergence proof of a self-organizing RBF neural network based on distance concentration immune algorithm(DCIA-SORBFNN) is applied to guarantee the feasibility of algorithm. Finally, several nonlinear functions are used to validate the effectiveness of the algorithm. Experimental results show that the proposed DCIASORBFNN has achieved better nonlinear approximation ability than that of the art relevant competitors.

Sludge concentration dynamic distribution and its impact on the performance of UNITANK

UNITANK is a biological wastewater treatment process that combines the advantages of traditional activated sludge process and sequencing batch reactor, which is divided into Tank A, B and C. In this study, the sludge distribution and its impact on performance of UNITANK were carried out in Liede Wastewater Plant （WWTP） of Guangzhou, China. Results showed that there was a strong affiliation between Tank A and B of the system in sludge concentration distribution. The initial sludge concentration in Tank A could present the sludge distribution of the whole system. The sludge distribution was mainly influenced by hydraulic condition. Unsteady sludge distribution had an impact on variations of substrates in reactors, especially in decisive reactor, and this could lead to failure of system. Settler could partially remove substrates such as COD and NO3-N, but there was adventure of sludge deterioration. The rational initial sludge concentration in Tank A should be 4000-6000 mg/L MLSS.

Effects of Nitrate Concentration in Main Anoxic Zone on Denitrifying Dephosphatation

The effects of nitrate concentration in the main anoxic zone on denitrifying dephosphatation capability were conducted based on modified University of Cape Town （MUCT） process. Meanwhile the relation between optimal nitrate concentration （Nopt） and influent C/N ratio was evaluated, in which the influont chemical oxygen demand （COD） concentration was stabilized at （2905：10）mg/L, the influent total phosphorus （TP） concentration was stabilized at （7.0±0. 5）mg/L. The results indicated that： （1） the nitrate concentration in the main anoxic zone had an effect on denitrifying dephosphatation capability, and the average percentages of anoxic phosphorus uptake in total phosphorus uptake （ηa） increased with nitrate cancentration increasing, i.e., increasing from 62.1% at2.0 mg/L to63.7%, 65.6%, 68.1%, and 72.3% at 2.2, 2.4, 2.6 and 2.8mg/L, respectively; （2） the Nopt as function of influent C/N ratio could be calculated by the equation： y = 0.67x^2-7.79x ＋ 22. 21; the maximum percentages of anoxic phosphorus uptake in total phosphorus uptake （ηa,max） as function of the Nopt could be calculated by the equation： y=0.77-0.33e^-（x/1.52）. The Nopt was the important control parameter that must be optimized for operation of conveational biological nutrieat removal activated sludge （BNRAS） system.

APPLICATION OF TRIANGLE MARKOV CHAIN TO GRAVITY CONCENTRATION

In combination with the Bagnold's shearing theory and the principle of Markov process,a mathematical model of sluice type's gravity concentrators has been developed based on the transfer probabilities of mineral particles.According to the transfer probabilities,the quanti- tative relationship between the final separation results and feed variables has been established and verified by experimental data.The availability of this model is vital for process design and optimization or mill control of gravity concentration circuits.

Studies on Sulfating Roasting Process for Mianning Bastnasite and Baotou Mixed RE Concentrate Ore

Some processes of sulfating roasting and water leaching of crude Mianning RE concentrate ore, of fine Mianning RE concentrate ore, of Baotou RE concentrate ore and of their mixture were investigated.The result shows that the mixture of Mianning and Baotou RE concentrate ore has the optimum leaching rate and rate of recovery when the mixture ratio is 1:4.The recovery rate of the mixture is higher by 14.76% than that of crude Mianning RE concentrate ore, by 5.0 % than that of Mianning fine RE concentrate ore and by 2.4 % than that of Baotou RE concentrate ore.

Study on Treatment Technologies of High Concentrations of Industrial Organic Wastewater

The characteristics and harm of high concentrations of organic wastewater were introducecl firstly, and then several treatment processes and effects of high concentrations of organic wastewater were summarized, which can provide theoretical references for the choice of wastewater treatment process.

CONCENTRATION CHARACTERISTICS OF SOLUBLE IMPURITIES IN THE SURFACE SNOW OF COLLINS ICE CAP, KING GEORGE ISLAND, ANTARCTICA

Measurements carried out for the upper 10m firn/ice obtained at the main dome of Collins Ice Cap, King George Island, Antarctica revealed the direct relation of soluble impurities of snow mass to the composition of atmosphere aerosols. It was indicated that sea salt source dominates the atmosphere aerosol around Collins Ice Cap.The simultaneous variation shown by the concentration profiles of Na+ , K+ , Mg2+ , Ca2+, SO42-, Cl- , Br- and very close EF values (≈1) suggested their common marine source and similar deposition process. Besides the possible surface contamination,NH4+ varied uniformly along deeper part of the core in concentration, which could be considered as background value of ammonium. A satisfactory explanation for NO3- concentration profile has not reached at present.

Experimental Study of Vertical Two-dimensional Diffusion Concentration Distribution in Sloped Wave Bank Angular Field

[Objectives] This study was conducted to detect the two-dimensional diffusion concentration distribution from sloped wave bank. [Methods] Diffusion experiments of instantaneous line source discharge were carried out using two sloped wave banks with different inclination angles based on the developed two-dimensional diffusion tank device for sloped wave banks by the apex discharge method under grid oscillation frequencies n=15, 20, 40 and 60 r/min. The image acquisition and digital image processing techniques were applied to measure the two-dimensional concentration field distribution and to analyze the distribution laws of the pollutant in the angular field. [Results] The diffusion of the pollutant in the sloped wave bank area became faster with the increase of the grid oscillation frequency, and the pollution range became wider with the diffusion time. The point concentration of the pollutant at the water surface monotonically decreased with the increase of the abscissa, and the vertical concentration distribution decreased with the increase of water depth. The transverse diffusion rate of the pollutant in water was greater than the vertical diffusion rate, and its concentration distribution exhibited a distribution characteristic of farther diffusion in the adjacent area on the water surface. The diffusion experiment area of the sloped wave bank at θ=30° had a higher concentration of the pollutant at each point compared with the diffusion experiment of the sloped bank at θ=45°, under the same experimental conditions. A large-scale vortex appeared near the sloped wave bank at θ=45° during the experiment, and the presence of the vortex made the concentration distribution of the pollutant in the direction along the bank slope first decrease and then increase, while no obvious vortex was observed near the sloped wave bank at θ=30°, and the concentration of the pollutant decreased monotonously along the bank slope direction. [Conclusions] This study is of great significance for the concentration distribution laws and the lateral and vertical diffusion coefficients of side discharge at complex bank slopes and river banks.

The preparation of high concentration alkaline silica sol with the method of vacuum distillation

High concentration alkaline silica sol has been prepared by the method of vacuum distillation, which shows that the stable and high concentration silica sol can be obtained under conditions as follows： 70℃, vacuum degree of 0.095Mpa and dispersant of SDS. The experimental results show that the sol particles size decreases with mass concentration first and then increase, sol viscosity increases with mass concentration during the concentrating process. The TEM method was used to study the dispersion behavior of sol particles, its result showed that sol particles dispersed more uniformly after concentrating process than before concentrating distinctly. It could be concluded that the disperse degree of alkaline silica sol could be increased by addition of right dispersant. The dispersion mechanism of dispersant in alkaline silica sol was also discussed.

The Influences of Concentrate Extract Properties and Ethanol Addition Amount on the Ethanol Precipitation Process of Salvia Miltiorrhiza

In this work, 10 batches of Salvia miltiorrhiza concentrate were prepared and purified with ethanol precipitation process. Dry matter content, pH value, conductivity and water content of the concentrates and supernatants were all determined. When more ethanol was used in ethanol precipitation, the pH value of the supernatant generally increased, but dry matter content, water content, and the conductivity decreased. Multivariate linear models were built with the most determination coefficient values greater than 0.7. More than 80% of stachyose was removed in the ethanol precipitation process. The removal rate of fructose, raffinose and sucrose were all higher than 30%. When ethanol addition amount increased, the purity of phenolic acids in the supernatant increased, but the retention of lithosperimic acid and salvianolic acid B decreased. The conductivity and pH value of concentrated extract show relatively small influences on ethanol precipitation indices. When fructose, raffinose, or stachyose contents in the concentrated extract were high, the retention rate of phenolic acids tends to be low on most occasions. The purity and retention rate of phenolic acids in the supernatants were also affected by the purity of phenolic acids in the concentrated. The sugar contents in the concentrate are suggested to be monitored in industry because they significantly affect ethanol precipitation process indices.

Study on Measurement of Colloidal Liquid Concentration Based on Tyndall Phenomenon

In order to more easily measure the concentration of solution with the Tyndall phenomenon in the outdoor, a portable instrument using imageprocessing for collecting and processing images of Tyndall phenomenon is proposed. The software and hardware of light measurement module of the portable instrument are described in this paper, including the selection of the incident light and the image sensor. Then the optical path of the captured picture was extracted and the light intensity value was calculated. Through the standard sample, the linear relationship between the light intensity in the Tyndall phenomenon and the concentration was fitted to determine the concentration of the colloidal liquid to be tested. Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that the method of obtaining the concentration of colloidal liquid by using the relationship between the RGB mean of the image and the light intensity of Tyndall can control the error within 10%, which meets the preliminary test requirements.

Research on Treatment Technology for the Industrial Wastewaters with High Concentrationin China

By using the introduced CWO technology and its 200 L/d plant, more than 10 kinds of industrial wastewaters with high concentration in China, such as the waste liquor of coking, the black liquor of paper making, the waste mother liquor of bio-pharmacy and so on, were treated in this test research. The results showed that the CWO technology and its equipment had a good applicability for treating the industrial wastewaters with high concentration in China. One set of CWO-20 m^3/d industrial plant, as a demonstration engineering installation of CWO technology, was independently designed, made and operated in Kunming city. During the running test, the CWO-20 m^3/d plant displayed a favorable treatment capability for the bio-degradedly difficult industrial wastewaters with high concentration. For the treatment of the waste liquor from coking and the black liquor of paper making, more than 99% of CODcr and NH3-N in the wastewater could be removed. The CWO-20 m^3/d plant could be run continuously and stably. The treated wastewater could meet the discharge standard and the treatment process with CWO technology shown up a good economic advantage.

Characteristics of coal sludge slurry prepared by a wet-grinding process

Coal sludge slurry(CSS) is an alternative fuel and a potential competitive method for sludge reduction.Based on the researches of coal water slurry, we studied CSSs by using a wet-grinding process with different types of regional municipal sludge(sludge) in an orthogonal experiment. The sludge type,sludge mixing proportion, dosage of dispersant, and grinding time were tested in this study. The results show that water content and its occurrence characteristics in the sludge have primary hindering influences on slurry ability. The range of fixed-viscosity concentrations with raw wet sludge is from 50.78%to 44.40%(by weight), while the range is from 53.35% to 51.51%(by weight) with dry sludge. All of the CSSs exhibit shear-thinning behaviors with different variation trends, especially the CSSs with more than 15%(by weight) raw wet sludge in it. Adding the same proportion of raw wet sludge increases the thixotropic properties of CSSs and the highest area of thixotropy loop is 3065 Pa/s, while the highest value of dry sludge is 1798 Pa/s. Hydrophilic group plays an important role in adsorbing water and building three-dimension networks with other particles, which is the main reason for CSS properties.Therefore, the mechanism can be used to find the way for making high quality CSS.