A review of state-of-the-art processing operations in coal preparation

Coal preparation is an integral part of the coal commodity supply chain. This stage of post-mining, pre-utilization beneficiation uses low-cost separation technologies to remove unwanted mineral matter and moisture which hinder the value of the coal product. Coal preparation plants typically employ several parallel circuits of cleaning and dewatering operations, with each circuit designed to optimally treat a specific size range of coal. Recent innovations in coal preparation have increased the efficiency and capac- ity of individual unit operations while reinforcing the standard parallel cleaning approach. This article, which describes the historical influences and state-of-the-art design for the various coal preparation unit operations, is organized to distinguish between coarse/intermediate coal cleaning and fine/ultrafine coal cleaning. Size reduction, screening, classification, cleaning, dewatering, waste disposal unit operations are particularly highlighted, with a special focus on the LI.S. design philosophy. Notable differences between the U.S. and international operations are described as appropriate.

Gut Microbiota Reconstruction Following Host Infection with Bloodstage Plasmodium berghei ANKA Strain in a Murine Model

Malaria remains a global health problem.The relationship between Plasmodium spp.and the gut microbiota as well as the impact of Plasmodium spp.on the gut microbiota in vertebrate hosts is unclear.The aim of the current study was to evaluate the effect of blood-stage Plasmodium parasites on the gut microbiota of mice.The gut microbiota was analyzed by 16S rRNA sequencing and bioinformatic analyses at three stages.The gut microbiota changed during the three phases:the healthy stage,the infection stage,and the cure stage(on the 9th day after malarial elimination).Moreover,the gut microbiota of these infected animals did not recover after malaria infection.There were 254 operational taxonomic units(OTUs)across all three stages,and there were unique strains or OTUs at each stage of the experiment.The percentages of community abundance of 8 OTUs changed significantly(P<0.05).The dominant OTU in both the healthy mice and the mice with malaria was OTU265,while that in the cured mice was OTU234.In addition,the changes in OTU147 were the most noteworthy.Its percentage of community abundance varied greatly,with higher values during malaria than before malaria infection and after malaria elimination.These results indicated that the external environment influenced the gut microbiota after host C57BL/6 mice were infected with blood-stage P.berghei ANKA and that the same was true during and after elimination of blood-stage P.berghei ANKA.In addition,we could not isolate OTU147 for further study.This study identified gut microbiota components that were reconstructed after infection by and elimination of blood-stage P.berghei ANKA in host C57BL/6 mice,and this process was affected by P.berghei ANKA and the external environment of the host.

Experimentation of a 1-pixel bit reconfigurable ternary optical processor

A detailed experiment of 1-pixel bit reconfigurable ternary optical processor （TOP） is proposed in the paper. 42 basic operation units （BOUs） and 28 typical logic operators of the TOP are realized in the experiment. Results of the test cases elaborately cover the every combination of BOUs and all the nine inputs of ternary processor. Both the experiment process and results analysis are given in this paper. The experimental results demonstrate that the theory of reconfiguring a TOP is valid and that the reconfiguration circuitry is effective.

Enhancing the culturability of bacteria from the gastrointestinal tract of farmed adult turbot Scophthalmus maximus

Eighteen agar media were tested for the culture of gut-associated bacteria from farmed adult turbot （Scophthalmus maximus）, including 16 agar media with or without 1% gastrointestinal （GI） supernatant, or with 2% or 4% GI supernatant. A total of 1 711 colonies were analyzed and 24 operational taxonomic units （OTUs） were identified. The greatest bacterial diversity was isolated on Zobell 2216E/ Zobell 2216E＋ agar media, whereas MRS/MRS＋ agar media produced a low diversity of colonies, Agar media with GI supernatant （1%, 2%, or 4%） showed increased diversity and yielded different profiles of OTUs from the corresponding original media, suggesting that GI supernatant provides substances that enhance the culture efficiency of bacteria from the turbot GI tract. The large majority of the colonies （82%） were 7-Proteobacteria, whereas 15.6% and 2.4% of colonies were Firmicutes and Actinobacteria, respectively. At the genus level, 49.4% of all colonies were assigned to Vibrio. Other potential pathogens, including Pseudomonas, Photobacterium, and Enterobacter, and potential probiotics, including Bacillus, Paenibacillus, and Pseudomonas, were also isolated on agar media. Most cultured bacteria belonged to species that were first described in the turbot GI tract. The impact of these species on turbot physiology and health should be investigated further.

Structural and functional characteristics of microbiota in oropharynx of sub-healthy children with gastrointestinal heat retention syndrome differentiated by traditional Chinese medicine

Objective:To explore the structural and functional characteristics of microbiota in oropharynx of subhealthy children with gastrointestinal heat retention syndrome(GHRS)differentiated by traditional Chinese medicine,and screen the biometric operational taxonomic units(OTUs)to assist the clinical diagnosis.Methods:We recruited children according to the“GHRS diagnostic scale”,collected their oropharyngeal swabs,and sequenced the 16 SrDNA V4 region.We described the bacterial structure with alpha-indexes,beta-distances,and relative abundances;moreover,we screened the differential genera/OTUs with Wilcoxon rank-sum test,Metagenome Seq analysis,and linear discriminant analysis effect size(LEf Se)analysis,in which biometric OTUs were selected to construct the receiver operating characteristic curve to verify the diagnostic value.The bacterial function was predicted with Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways according to 16S rDNA gene by using Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States.Results:The study population was composed of 10 children with GHRS and 10 healthy control children.GHRS children were more likely to overeat(gluttony,P=.033).Alpha-indexes,such as Sobs,abundancebased coverage estimator,Bootstrap,and Qstat,were significantly higher in the GHRS group,while betadistances did not exhibit any significant intergroup differences.There were 9 differently distributed nonpredominant genera between the groups in Wilcoxon rank-sum test,as well as 13 non-predominant genera in Metagenome Seq analysis and 3 non-predominant OTUs in LEfSe analysis.OTU44 and OTU196 were used to construct the receiver operating characteristic curve,and the area under curve was 0.92.Predicted functions showed that pathways related to oxidative phosphorylation and carbon metabolism were enriched in healthy control samples,while the pathway related to renin secretion was remarkably enriched in GHRS samples.Conclusion:Unique oropharyngeal microbial structure and function were identified in GHRS children.OTU44 and OTU196 were specific OTUs,which could be used as biomarkers of GHRS to assist clinical diagnosis.

A paradigm-based evolution of chemical engineering

A short presentation of chemical engineering evolution,as guided by its paradigms,is exposed.The first paradigm–unit operations–has emerged as a necessity of systematization due to the explosion of chemical industrial applications at the end of 19th century.The birth in the late 1950s of the second paradigm–transport phenomena–was the consequence of the need for a deep,scienti fic knowledge of the phenomena that explain what happens inside of unit operations.In the second part of 20th century,the importance of chemical product properties and qualities has become essentially in the market fights.Accordingly,it was required with additional and even new fundamental approaches,and product engineering was recognized as the third paradigm.Nowadays chemical industry,as a huge materials and energy consumer,and with a strong ecological impact,couldn't remain outside of sustainability requirements.The basics of the fourth paradigm–sustainable chemical engineering–are now formulated.

Recurrent Autoencoder Ensembles for Brake Operating Unit Anomaly Detection on Metro Vehicles

The anomaly detection of the brake operating unit (BOU) in thebrake systems on metro vehicle is critical for the safety and reliability ofthe trains. On the other hand, current periodic inspection and maintenanceare unable to detect anomalies in an early stage. Also, building an accurateand stable system for detecting anomalies is extremely difficult. Therefore,we present an efficient model that use an ensemble of recurrent autoencodersto accurately detect the BOU abnormalities of metro trains. This is the firstproposal to employ an ensemble deep learning technique to detect BOUabnormalities in metro train braking systems. One of the anomalous caseson metro vehicles is the case when the air cylinder (AC) pressures are less thanthe brake cylinder (BC) pressures in certain parts where the brake pressuresincrease before coming to a halt. Hence, in this work, we first extract the dataof BC and AC pressures. Then, the extracted data of BC and AC pressuresare divided into multiple subsequences that are used as an input for bothbi-directional long short-term memory (biLSTM) and bi-directional gatedrecurrent unit (biGRU) autoencoders. The biLSTM and biGRU autoencodersare trained using training dataset that only contains normal subsequences. Fordetecting abnormalities from test dataset which consists of abnormal subsequences, the mean absolute errors (MAEs) between original subsequences andreconstructed subsequences from both biLSTM and biGRU autoencoders arecalculated. As an ensemble step, the total error is calculated by averaging twoMAEs from biLSTM and biGRU autoencoders. The subsequence with totalerror greater than a pre-defined threshold value is considered an abnormality.We carried out the experiments using the BOU dataset on metro vehiclesin South Korea. Experimental results demonstrate that the ensemble modelshows better performance than other autoencoder-based models, which showsthe effectiveness of our ensemble model for detecting BOU anomalies onmetro trains.

The Effects of SO_3 in Flue Gas on the Operation of Coalfired Units and Countermeasures

There exists a certain amount of SO_3 in flue gas discharged from coal-fired power plants. With the operation of the selective catalystic reduction( SCR) denitrification system,SO_3 concentration in the flue gas increases,which will lead to fouling,erosion and plugging of downstream equipment. In this study,the main effects of SO_3 on the safety,stability and efficiency of units were analyzed,and measures to control SO_3 were proposed.

THE DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF ALGORITHM OF MINIMUM COST SPANNING TREE

This paper provides a method of producing a minimum cost spanning tree (MCST) using set operations. It studies the data structure for implementation of set operations and the algorithm to be applied to this structure and proves the correctness and the complexity of the algorithm. This algorithm uses the FDG (formula to divide elements into groups) to sort (the FDG sorts a sequence of n elements in expected tir O(n)) and uses the method of path compression to find and to unite. Therefore. n produces an MCST of an undirected network having n vertices and e edges in expected time O(eG(n)).

A 300-MW CFB unit put into operation

On February 8, the first 300-MW CFB generating unit of Inner Mongolia Jingtai Power Generation Company, Unit 1 passed the 168-h trial

Laxiwa put four units into operation in one year

On December 25, 2009, after the 72-hour trail operation, Unit 2 of Laxiwa Hydropower Station on the Yellow River, constructed by CPI Yellow River Hydropower Corporation, was formally

First membrane unit for separating CO_2 from natural gas operational

After a more-than-two-week trial operation, a new membrane unit based on the technology developed by researchers from the CAS Dalian Institute of

Global paleobiogeography of Albian—Cenomanian(mid-Cretaceous)marine ostracods

Despite their potential for providing important information for paleobiogeography,studies using ostracod assemblages compiled from global datasets have been scarce so far.In this study,the paleogeographic implications of the relationship between different ostracod assemblages are analyzed and discussed for the Albian and Cenomanian.We compiled an ostracod dataset at the genus level,with 168 genera for the Albian and 174 for the Cenomanian,to which different multivariate statistical methods of grouping were applied.The affinity between different ostracod assemblages from different regions allowed for the delineation of 30 operational geographic units(OGUs)for the Albian,and 32 OGUs for the Cenomanian,grouped in three paleobiogeographic units(PBUs;Megatethys,Persia,and Austral)and one sub-unit(PBSU;Maghreb associated to the Megatethys).The Maghreb PBSU showed minor changes between the Albian and Cenomanian.The relationship among the OGUs grouped in each PBU is related to different factors,such as eustatic sea level events,similar climatic zones,and marine current circulation patterns.A relationship was observed between the Gabon and Nigeria OGUs with the Persia PBU,which suggests a direct east—west connection between them during the Cenomanian.The affinity observed in the Austral PBU between the South American,South African,and Australian regions during the Albian can be explained by their relative geographic isolation due to the Walvis Ridge barrier.The eventual flooding of this barrier led to the relationship observed between the SE Brazilian and Bolivian regions with the Austral PBU.Finally,the data also suggested that the separation of the Indian subcontinent from the Austral PBU took place during the Cenomanian.

Decreased soil pH weakens the positive rhizosphere effect on denitrification capacity

The stimulating effect of rhizosphere on denitrification is considered to be an unavoidable loss of soil nitrogen(N)and detrimental to crop N use efficiency,which is regulated by crop growth and soil properties.Soil acidification,occurring rapidly in many intensive farming lands,affects both crop growth and soil properties,thereby altering rhizosphere effect on denitrification.However,the mechanism by which soil acidification regulates rhizosphere denitrification still remains unclear.Here,we determined the denitrification capacity(DC)and associated community compositions of nirK-and nirS-type denitrifiers in maize rhizosphere and bulk soils at four acidity gradients(pH=6.8,6.1,5.2,and 4.2).Results showed that the stimulating effect of rhizosphere on DC strongly depended on soil pH.Compared to bulk soil,rhizosphere soil had significantly higher DC at pH 5.2,but not at pH of 4.2.With increasing soil acidity,the stimulation of rhizosphere on DC(calculated as the difference in DC between rhizosphere and bulk soils)decreased from 8.01 to 0.01 mg N kg-1d-1.Moreover,soil acidification significantly reduced the differences in dissolved organic carbon(DOC)and abundance of key nirK-type denitrifier taxa between rhizosphere and bulk soils,both of which were positively related to the stimulation of rhizosphere on DC.These findings demonstrated that soil acidification could weaken the positive rhizosphere effect on denitrification via regulated C availability and associated nirK-type denitrifier community,potentially reducing N loss risk in rhizosphere soil.The independent role of soil p H should be fully considered when modelling N behaviour in plant-soil systems.

Decrease-radix design principle for carrying/borrowing free multi-valued and application in ternary optical computer

In this paper a new theory referred to as the decrease-radix design （DRD） is proposed, which is found in the research of logic units of ternary （tri-valued） optical computer. Based on the theory proposed, the principles and the regulations of the DRD for making operation units of multi-valued operation with carrying/borrowing free are also presented. The research work has come to the following important conclusion： let D be a special state contained in n physical informative states, then one may figure out any multi-valued processors within n^（n×n） carrying/borrowing free n-valued units by the composition some of n×n×（n-1） simplest basic operating units according to the regulations of DRD proposed in this paper. The detailed systematic way of our design regulations is highlighted step by step in the paper with an example of design of a tri-valued logic optical operating unit. The real architecture, the procedure, and the experimental results of our sample in tri-valued logic operating unit are given. Finally, a re-constructible model of ternary logical optical processor is introduced. The theory proposed in the paper has laid down a solid foundation for the design of re-constructible carrying/borrowing free operating units in ternary optical computers and can be widely used as the designing reference in a variety of multi-valued logic operating units.

Metagenomic Surveys of Gut Microbiota

Gut microbiota of higher vertebrates is host-specific. The number and diversity of the organisms residing within the gut ecosystem are defined by physiological and environmental factors, such as host genotype, habitat, and diet. Recently, culture-independent sequencing techniques have added a new dimension to the study of gut microbiota and the challenge to analyze the large volume of sequencing data is increasingly addressed by the development of novel computational tools and methods. Interestingly, gut microbiota maintains a constant relative abundance at operational tax- onomic unit （OTU） levels and altered bacterial abundance has been associated with complex diseases such as symptomatic atherosclerosis, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and colorectal cancer. Therefore, the study of gut microbial population has emerged as an important field of research in order to ulti- mately achieve better health. In addition, there is a spontaneous, non-linear, and dynamic interac- tion among different bacterial species residing in the gut. Thus, predicting the influence of perturbed microbe-microbe interaction network on health can aid in developing novel therapeutics. Here, we summarize the population abundance of gut microbiota and its variation in different clinical states, computational tools available to analyze the pyrosequencing data, and gut microbe-microbe inter- action networks.