Wetland salinization. Feeder creek at Bottle Bend Lagoon, a wetland near Midura, Australia, where inadequate water management in the past has led to salinization and acid sulfate soils.

Reducing the influence of an undesired product in an enzymatic reaction could have a significant impact on the productivity of such systems. Here, we focus on the removal of water formed during an enzymatic esterification in a batch reactor. A commercial immobilized lipase preparation, known as Lipozyme, is used as the biocatalyst and propionic acid and isoamyl alcohol dissolved in hexane are the substrates. In this system, the water formed will partition between the catalyst and the medium. As the more polar reactants are converted into the less polar ester product, the water is partitioned more towards the biocatalyst and the accumulation of water eventually causes lower reaction rates. Addition of a strong‐acid cation exchange resin in sodium form is found to control the water accumulation on the biocatalyst without stripping the essential water needed for the enzyme to function and substantial improvements in conversion are achieved. A mathematical model is developed to describe the batch reaction behavior with and without added absorbent, which successfully predicts the behavior of water and its effects. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Biotechnol Bioeng 60: 434–444, 1998.

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SummaryIt is estimated that up to 1% of the general population has a congenital bleeding disorder. With this level of disease burden, it is more likely than not that any practising surgeon or anaesthetist will, at one time or another, have occasion to manage one such patient. Congenital haemophilia, both A and B, von Willebrand's disease, and inherited qualitative platelet defects, constitute the bulk of these disorders, with the rest distributed between much rarer conditions. Although looking after such patients will continue to pose a challenge to anaesthetists, recent and continuing advances in haemostatic products, coupled with increasing awareness of haemostatic care, means that surgery in this challenging group of patients is safer now than ever before, and can now be undertaken with a degree of confidence not possible even two decades ago. Central to these recent successes has been the continuing evolution of specialised healthcare services; in particular, Haemophilia Comprehensive Care Centres. Of equal importance, at least in developed countries, has been the ease of access to highly purified, safe and effective haemostatic products. The key to successful surgical management of the patient with a bleeding disorder is a multidisciplinary approach involving not only surgeons, anaesthetists and haematologists, but also laboratory scientists, specialist physiotherapists and haemophilia nurses. With careful planning, most surgical and invasive procedures can be carried out safely in persons with haemophilia and other bleeding disorders.

This work concerns the chromatographic separation of protein charge variants using pH gradients generated by step changes in buffer composition with weak base anion exchange columns. A local equilibrium model is first developed to describe pH transitions occurring in the column using buffers comprising neutral, zwitterionic or positively charged species. Model predictions, based solely on the resins' titration curves and obtained with the method of characteristics, show, in excellent agreement with experiments, that induced pH gradients of varying durations and shapes can be obtained with a broad range of buffer systems including Tris, Bis-Tris propane, histidine, and their mixtures and ethanolamine. The separation of protein charge variants is then demonstrated for bovine apo-transferrin and for a monoclonal antibody. The resolution of the charge variants present in these proteins, demonstrated via isoelectric focusing analyses, is obtained for conditions amenable to scale-up for preparative purposes; that is larger particle sizes (90 lm), higher flow rates (100-600 cm/h), and higher protein loads (2-5 mg/mL). Because the approach requires only step changes in buffer composition and commonly available, unretained buffers species, practical implementation is straightforward. The focusing effect of the induced pH gradient results in relatively sharp peaks and substantial resolution even for these conditions.

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Elevated instream fine sediment is one of the most important water quality stressors affecting both the structure and function of aquatic ecosystems. This study evaluates whether a predictable pattern of trait distribution of Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera (EPT) can be observed along a gradient of sediment stress in eight selected sites in the Tsitsa River and its tributaries. The sites were classified into four site groups according to their fine sediment loads. One-way analysis of variance was used to test differences in the relative abundance of traits across the site groups. A predictable pattern was observed in 13 of the 27 trait attributes tested, with most traits displaying low abundances in highly disturbed site groups. The relationship between EPT traits and fine sediment stress was analysed using the multivariate RLQ analysis, and the result showed that traits such as swimming, shredding, operculate gill, small body size, and sclerotized body were the dominant traits in the sediment influenced site groups. In the less disturbed site groups, filter feeding, crawling, filamentous gill, soft and exposed body, and large body size were the dominant trait attributes. These observed relationships between EPT traits and sediment stress provide support for the potential usefulness of EPT traits as indicators of fine sediment stress in riverine ecosystems.