β-glucosidase (E.C. 3.2.1.21), an enzyme involved in cellulose degradation, plays an important role in the soil organic carbon cycle. Cellulose is the most abundant organic compound in the biosphere so a product of its enzymatic hydrolysis is important as an energy source for soil microorganisms. Since β-glucosidase is very sensitive to different factors, determination of its activity might be ...

Introduction Conclusions References

An organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is a power cycle employing an organic working fluid. The term ORC is also applied generally to any Rankine cycle with a low-grade heat source (80° – 300 o C). Because ORC are often employed in small-scale applications, use of positive displacement equipment is favored over the centrifugal units used in large-scale power plants. A key feature of a positive displace...

The vast amount of organic carbon (OC) stored in soils of the northern circumpolar permafrost region is a potentially vulnerable component of the global carbon cycle. However, estimates of the quantity, decomposability, and combustibility of OC contained in permafrost-region soils remain highly uncertain, thereby limiting our ability to predict the release of greenhouse gases due to permafrost ...

Ionic and organic parameters of the otolith calcification process in the trout Oncorhynchus mykiss were analysed in plasma and endolymph over the day:night cycle. Plasma pH remained constant and total CO(2) concentration was significantly lower (by 21%) during the day than at night. Calcifying parameters (total CO(2), total calcium concentration) were measured in the proximal and distal endolym...

Largest satellite of Saturn and the only in the solar system having a dense atmosphere, Titan is one of the key planetary bodies for astrobiological studies, due to several aspects. (i) Its analogies with planet Earth, in spite of much lower temperatures, with, in particular, a methane cycle on Titan analogous to the water cycle on Earth. (ii) The presence of an active organic chemistry, involv...

[1] Post-fire storage of carbon (C) in organic-soil horizons was measured in one Canadian and three Alaskan chronosequences in black spruce forests, together spanning stand ages of nearly 200 yrs. We used a simple mass balance model to derive estimates of inputs, losses, and accumulation rates of C on timescales of years to centuries. The model performed well for the surface and total organic s...

the present paper is aimed at describing a “closed cycle” power plant schematic (soft, solar oxygen fuel turbine) with macroalgae (seaweed) cultivation in a pond, combustion of its organic matter in a fluidized bed boiler of rankine cycle and return of the combustion products to the pond to feed algae. the oxygen used for combustion is released to atmosphere in photosynthesis. as a renewable fu...