Search results for "Osmosis"
showing 10 items of 77 documents
Effect of reducing agents on the acidification capacity and the proton motive force of Lactococcus lactis ssp. cremoris resting cells.
2002
International audience; Reducing agents are potential inhibitors of the microbial growth. We have shown recently that dithiothreitol (DTT), NaBH(4) and H(2) can modify the proton motive force of resting cells of Escherichia coli by increasing the membrane protons permeability [Eur. J. Biochem. 262 (1999) 595]. In the present work, the effect of reducing agents on the resting cells of Lactococcus lactis ssp. cremoris, a species widely employed in dairy processes was investigated. DTT did not affect the acidification nor the DeltapH, in contrast to the effect previously reported on E. coli. The DeltaPsi was slightly increased (30 mV) at low pH (pH 4) in the presence of 31 mM DTT or 2.6 mM NaB…
Mechanism of porous core electroosmotic pump flow injection system and its application to determination of chromium(VI) in waste-water.
1999
An electroosmotic pump flow injection system is introduced in this paper. According to electroosmotic theory, the pump's properties were described. A large flow range (mul min(-1)-ml min(-1)), moderate carrier pressure (0.15 MPa), reduced performance voltage (500 V) and stable flow rate (RSD3.0% in 4 h) are the main properties of the pump. NH(4)OH (0.35 mM) was used as carrier for improving the pump's flow stability. The electroosmotic efficiency of the pump's medium, porous core, can be recovered and regenerated. A sandwich zone was used for sample and reagent introduction in order to adapt to the pump performance. Flow injection-spectrophotometry was employed for the determination of Cr(V…
Ions channels/transporters and chloroplast regulation.
2015
International audience; Ions play fundamental roles in all living cells and their gradients are often essential to fuel transports, to regulate enzyme activities and to transduce energy within and between cells. Their homeostasis is therefore an essential component of the cell metabolism. Ions must be imported from the extracellular matrix to their final subcellular compartments. Among them, the chloroplast is a particularly interesting example because there, ions not only modulate enzyme activities, but also mediate ATP synthesis and actively participate in the building of the photosynthetic structures by promoting membrane-membrane interaction. In this review, we first provide a comprehen…
A Review of the Water Desalination Technologies
2021
Desalination is commonly adopted nowadays to overcome the freshwater scarcity in some areas of the world if brackish water or salt water is available. Different kinds of technologies have been proposed in the last century. In this paper, the state of the mainstream solutions is reported, showing the current commercial technologies like reverse osmosis (RO), Multi-Stages Flash desalination (MSF) and Multi-Effect Distillation (MED), and the new frontiers of the research with the aim of exploiting renewable sources such as wind, solar and biomass energy. In these cases, seawater treatment plants are the same as traditional ones, with the only difference being that they use a renewable energy s…
Consensus-Based Distributed State Estimation of Biofilm in Reverse Osmosis Membranes by WSNs
2017
The appearance of biofilm has become a serious problem in many reverse osmosis based systems such as the ones found in water treatment and desalination plants. In these systems, the use of traditional techniques such as pretreatment or dozing biocides are not effective when the biofilm reaches an irreversible attachment phase. In this work, we present a framework for the use of a WSN as an estimator of the biofilm evolution in a reverse osmosis membrane so that effective solutions can be applied before the irreversible phase is attained. This design is addressed in a complete distributed and decentralized fashion, and subject to realistic constraints where cooperation between nodes is perfo…
Simultaneous controlled iontophoretic delivery of pramipexole and rasagiline in vitro and in vivo: Transdermal polypharmacy to treat Parkinson's dise…
2018
[EN] Effective treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD) involves administration of therapeutic agents with complementary mechanisms of action in order to replenish, sustain or substitute endogenous dopamine. The objective of this study was to investigate anodal co-iontophoresis of pramipexole (PRAM; dopamine agonist) and rasagiline (RAS; MAO-B inhibitor) in vitro and in vivo. Passive permeation of PRAM and RAS (20 mM each) across porcine skin after 6 h was 15.7 +/- 1.9 and 16.0 +/- 2.9 mu g/cm(2), respectively. Co-iontophoresis at 0.15, 0.3 and 0.5 mA/cm(2) resulted in statistically significant increases in delivery of PRAM and RAS; at 0.5 mA/cm(2), cumulative permeation of PRAM and RAS was 61…
Iontophoresis: electrorepulsion and electroosmosis.
2000
Over the last 10-15 years, the electrical enhancement of drug delivery across the skin has undergone intense investigation. During this period, considerable amounts of experimental data have been generated, and the successful enhancement of a diverse array of molecules has been achieved. Indeed, the commercial exploitation of the method can be envisaged within the next few years. Despite this progress, however, the mechanistic understanding of iontophoresis remains a challenging scientific question that is yet to be fully resolved. The routes of permeation under the influence of an applied electrical potential, and the molecular interactions of the transporting drug with these pathways, hav…
Optimal design of cogeneration plants for seawater desalination
2004
Multi-stage flash (MSF) and reverse osmosis (RO) are the most common techniques for seawater desalination. A significant difference between these methodologies consists of their different energy requirements, i.e., thermal energy for MSF and mechanical energy for RO plants. The presence of both desalination systems (MSF and RO) appears to be suitable for cogeneration plants. The reject heat from the power cycle can feed an MSF section, while some power feeds the RO section and the MSF auxiliary equipment; the rest is sold to the grid. A criterion for the optimal design of such tri-functional cogeneration plants is proposed, based on exergo-economics and on profit maximization. In particular…
Optimization of Osmotic Desalination Plants for Water Supply Networks
2016
Water scarcity and the poor quality of water resources are leading to a wider diffusion of desalination plants using the Reverse Osmosis (RO) process. Unfortunately, the cost of a cubic meter of fresh water produced by an RO plants is still high and many efforts are in progress to increase the efficiency of the membranes used in osmotic plants and to limit the energy required by the process. A further reduction of the energy cost could be obtained by an optimal operation of the desalination plant so reducing the hourly energy cost, or by coupling the RO plant with an energy production plant based on direct osmosis (Pressure Retarded Osmosis PRO). The economic viability of the desalination p…
Regulation of Nicotiana tabacum osmotic stress-activated protein kinase and its cellular partner GAPDH by nitric oxide in response to salinity
2010
Several studies focusing on elucidating the mechanism of NO (nitric oxide) signalling in plant cells have highlighted that its biological effects are partly mediated by protein kinases. The identity of these kinases and details of how NO modulates their activities, however, remain poorly investigated. In the present study, we have attempted to clarify the mechanisms underlying NO action in the regulation of NtOSAK (Nicotiana tabacum osmotic stress-activated protein kinase), a member of the SNF1 (sucrose non-fermenting 1)-related protein kinase 2 family. We found that in tobacco BY-2 (bright-yellow 2) cells exposed to salt stress, NtOSAK is rapidly activated, partly through a NO-dependent pr…