Submited on: 19 Jul 2011 01:05:37 AM GMT
Published on: 19 Jul 2011 07:30:30 PM GMT
 

1 Is the subject of the article within the scope of the subject category? Partly
2 Are the interpretations / conclusions sound and justified by the data? Partly
3 Is this a new and original contribution? Yes
4 Does this paper exemplify an awareness of other research on the topic? Yes
5 Are structure and length satisfactory? No
6 Can you suggest brief additions or amendments or an introductory statement that will increase the value of this paper for an international audience? Yes
7 Can you suggest any reductions in the paper, or deletions of parts? Yes
8 Is the quality of the diction satisfactory? Yes
9 Are the illustrations and tables necessary and acceptable? No
10 Are the references adequate and are they all necessary? No
11 Are the keywords and abstract or summary informative? Yes
  • Other Comments:

    Answers to the questions above:

    1. This article can be moved to the biotechnology category.

    2. Some considerations are done in the comments below.

    5. The manuscript can be shortened, as detailed in the comments below. 

    6 and 7. See the comments below.

    9. Considerations about modify figures and tables are done below.

    10. If the paper would be shortened, some references probably will be deleted as well.

    11. Some modifications to the abstract are suggested below.

    Reviewer Comments:

    Title: Recycling of nutrients from trash fish wastewater for microalgae production as health and pharmaceutical products and renewable energy

     This title is too large, it should be shortened to something like “Recycling trash fish wastewater with microalgae”, giving the emphasis to what you really wanted to show, i.e., the recycling of wastewater. Applying microalgae for any of their uses is a consequence of their availability.

    My comments are done considering the PDF format file, so, lines counting was done under this situation.

    - Always when citing some species without specific epitope, the topic “sp.” is not italic. Then, review and modify this in all text, for example, when referring to Nannochloropsis, it means: “Nannochloropsis sp.” 

    - Always cite the entire name of one species when citing it for the first time, and then, the next reference can be shortened. This is ok to identified species, for instance, Chlorella saccharophila must be abbreviated to C. saccharophila in its second citation. However this rule is not applicable to unidentified species, it means that you never abbreviate some organism named as Chlorella sp. (There is no C. sp.).

    Abstract

    It is possible to cultivate microalgae in open ponds using unfertile terrestrial environments, so the competition against terrestrial cultivars of traditional agriculture is not a good argument.

    Other consideration: only Nannochloropsis showed high potential to produce w-3. The percentages of oil content obtained from both microalgae are not as high as an industry would be interested. So, you could give emphasis in a possible increment in percentage with respect to an amount obtained without your treatments.

    Detailed comments:

    Line 9: change “microalgae” to “microalgae”

    Lines 10, 14 and 16: remove the italic of “sp.”, it means “sp.”

    Line 12: Do not begin a phrase with a number, so, introduce it with something like “The amount of 31.8 mg…”

    Line 16: Do not begin a phrase with an abbreviation. Put the abbreviation after its meaning. I.e., change to “Total fatty acids per cell dry weight (TFA)”

    Introduction

    Reviewer Comments

    In general, this topic is showing really what is the problem, and possible approaches to how to solve it. However, it is very extensive and repetitive. Some parts can be shortened. The best suggestion is: give focus directly to what you really measured. It means, for instance, there is no interest to know with many details that the pigments are useful to inhibit human cancer (mainly because this was not the focus of your study).

    1st paragraph is ok, explaining clearly what are the trash fish and the wastewater.

    The 2nd paragraph is very large; it must be shortened, or maybe separated in two paragraphs, maybe in the 18th line.

    A question here: You consider that the pellet feed would change completely the ecosystem balance. However, you are culturing and collecting the cage fish in the environment, there are influences of them to it. So this argument I not very strong and should be reviewed and reconsidered. The nutrient balance argument should be reviewed or better explained.

    3rd paragraph:

    There are no needs to dialogue with the reader! Do not ask questions to the reader. Just put what are the problems and how your study could help to solve it.

    Add to the second paragraph a phrase saying that trash fish are rich in nutrients and that is it. So, remove all sections from the line 4 to the end of the paragraph. You just will put all of your objectives together in the end of the introduction. You don’t need to put each one separately during the introduction. It becomes extensive and boring.

    4th paragraph:

    It is ok, and then, add together with it two sentences in the end: one about pigments uses and other considering algal polysaccharides. As you do not extract these compounds from Chlorella saccharophila and Nannochloropsis sp., an introduction so deep in these points is unnecessary. So, select small sections of the 5th and 6th paragraphs, adding them to the end of the 4th paragraph.

    5th paragraph, Line 19: if remaining this part, change “microalage” to “microalgae”.

    6th paragraph, Line 10: if remaining this stretch, italicize “Spirulina” and “Chlorella

    7th and 8th paragraphs: your idea was introduce to what Chlorella and Nannocloropsis species have been taken. It is ok.

    However, remove the beginning of the 7th paragraph, it is a part of the objective, will be put in the final of the introduction. So, remove from “Two genus…” up to “… provided here”.

    7th paragraph, Line 5: italicize “Chlorella”. Change the phrase “Green microalgae (Chlorophyte) including Chlorella and others are rich in long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (w-3/6), pigments like chlorophyll and carotenoids such as carotene and lutein (and violaxanthin, antheraxanthin, zeaxanthin and others) are also present.” to “Green microalgae (Chlorophyta), including Chlorella, are rich in long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (w-3/6) and pigments like chlorophylls and carotenoids.”

    Lines 14 and 20: italicize “Chlorella”.

    8th paragraph:

    Line 1: change “Eustigmatophyte” to “Eustigmatophyta”.

    Line 2: Italicize “Nannochloropsis” and “Monodus”; add a “,” after “others”;

    Line 5: Italicize “Nannochloropsis

    Line 6: Change the “;” by “,”.

    Line 12: Put the entire name of the species, i.e., “Nannochloropsis oculata

    Line 16: The phrase “Violaxanthin, antheraxanthin… (Cha et al. 2008)”, can be removed, because it deals with an alga from the group treated in the 7th paragraph.

    9th paragraph can be removed. It is repetitive. You already said that your species are useful to produce EPA, and you are treating the biofuels in the following paragraph. In addition, the last phrase is repeating the following objectives, so it can be deleted.

    10th paragraph: remove your opinion from there. It is obvious, in contrary you would not deal with this problem. So, delete the section beginning from the Line 16 to the end of the paragraph.

    Line 9: italicize “Chlorella

    Material and Methods

    You begin this topic repeating one of your objectives. It is not necessary; also, you begin citing “This experiment” but this reference is related to the experiment that will be explained further. I suggest to you a rearrangement.

    Your “overview of the study” is not really an overview… You are discussing the reasons why to analyse each of the nutrients present in the trash fish (chopped or whole forms). It is a kind of justification, and should be moved to the introduction. And furthermore, you finish this section again putting one of your objectives. 

    Your explanations about why to analyse each nutrient should be done inside the topic “Analysis of nutrients”, together with the “overview of analysis procedures”, and then, followed by each separated explanation of how you analysed them.  

    Then, you will begin the M&M section directly with the experiment, and the item “Trash fish wastewater analysis and the amount of nutrients in whole versus chopped trash fish”.

    The topic “Counting of microalgal cells” is not related to the experiment testing the trash fish (whole or chopped). It is a part of the analysis of microalgae cultivated under trash fish enriched media. So, change this section to inside of your explanation about the trash fish application for microalgal cultures.

    Add these information in the Line 24 of the topic “Application of trash fish wastewater for microalgal cultures”, after detailing air supply, explaining how the growth of the microalgae was studied.

    Change all “sp.” to “sp.”

    Take care with subjective definitions, as “deep green”, or “deep yellow-green”.

    Results and Discussion

    Firstly, some comments about your illustrations:

    Tables 1 and 2: eliminate vertical lines, and centralize the values inside the tables.

    Table 1: Instead to put ND and a letter “g”, just put “nd” and in the below of the table you add the meaning, i.e., “nd, not detected”. Also, you can change all of abbreviations inside the first column by the entire name, deleting the citations “a” to “f” below the table.

    Table 2: Italicize the genera Chlorella and Nannochloropsis in the first line. In the second line, when adding a unidentified species, put the complete generic name, it means changing “C. sp.” for “Chlorella sp.” Remove a “.” after “C. emersonii”. The legend of your table is incomplete. You are referring to types of organisms that can be used for obtaining biofuels, you are not considering different types of biofuels (it would be expected a table with gasoline, ethanol, QAV, etc.).

    Your figures 1 and 2 must be re-edited. Both of them are stretched and flatted. The  Fig 1 is stretched in the horizontal plane, and flatted in vertical plane. The Fig 2 is in contrary, stretched in vertical sense and flatted considering the horizontal plane. Probably this situation is result of copy/paste procedures from Excell to Word files. In addition, include what are the bars (standard deviations?) and the N used to obtain each value in your curves.

    I suggest changing the figure 1 for a table. Then, you will be able to show all values, including “ – “ to zero values (nitrite and nitrate, from chopped and whole trash fish)

    (4 of 10 nutrients included in this graph). If you are interested in the increment of protein (to whole and chopped forms) you can present a graph only to these values.

    Considering the Fig 2, italicize “Chlorella saccharophila” and “Nannochloropsis” in the legends.

    In the Table 3, italicize “Chlorella saccharophila” and “Nannochloropsis” in the legend. Change “Nanochloropsis sp.” to “Nannochloropsis sp.” in your table first line.

    Only the data related to “12:0” were obtained from triplicates? Delete vertical lines of the table. Centralize all the values obtained.

    Now, some considerations about your manuscript:

    You begin this item with explanations about the analysis of whole or chopped trash fish.

    In the second paragraph, change “less” for “lower”.

    Delete your opinion in the 3rd paragraph (i.e., “Fortunately, the wastewater contained both of them”).

    In the 6th paragraph, you put a part important of your overall conclusions, but you should say that you found differences between chopped and whole trash fish. This is one of the main point here, not only that “how the pollution sources derives from trash fish feeding”. You mean the composition of both trash fish forms. Explain it better.

    Change the “sp.” to “sp.” for all section. Also, always italicize “Chlorella” and “Nannochloropsis

    In the second topic (concerning growth of microalgae), the values presented in the second paragraph are in %/day?

    Yes, the trash fish can promote growth of bth microalgae, but not forever, it is during some xxx days.

    When dealing with Fatty acids profile, in the first paragraph, delete the phrase “Other sources include fruits, vegetables, etc. except EPA”.

    Lines 13 and 14: change “fresh water” to “freshwater”, and italicize “Monodus

    Line 18: change “microalaga” to “microalga”

    The second paragraph of this section is very extensive and repetitive. If you consider it really necessary, you must reduce it to less detailed information, mainly because your study is not mainly focused on these pharmaceutical aspects.

    In the last line, change “alterative” for “alternative”.

    Conclusions

    The main results and conclusions obtained from your study are concerning the composition of trash fish and its utilization to cultivate microalgae. From these organisms, you can have some important values of EPA and biofuels, although 10-13% is a low percentage. It is valuable if considering the elimination of pollutants from the seawater. The indication of a salinity role to increasing % of lipids is also important. However, as you are not performing experiments in aquatic or terrestrial environment, you can not conclude about using land or aquatic zones.

    References

    The citation “Day 2009” is not showed in the references list, as well as the reference Day et al. (2009) is not included in the text. Are they the same, i.e, is there a “et al.” missing in the citation?

    Italicize all specific and generic names of species in all of your references.

  • Competing interests:
    No
  • Invited by the author to review this article? :
    Yes
  • Have you previously published on this or a similar topic?:
    No
  • References:
    None
  • Experience and credentials in the specific area of science:

    I worked at an important oil company during one year, dealing with microalgae and their possible utilization as source to biofuels. Recently (last month), I moved back to the university as a professor, studying macro and microalgae physilogy and molecular biology.

  • How to cite:  Barufi J .Recycling of nutrients from trash fish wastewater for microalgae production as health and pharmaceutical products and renewable energy[Review of the article 'Recycling of Nutrients from Trash Fish Wastewater for Microalgae Production as Health and Pharmaceutical Products and Renewable Energy ' by Chan H].WebmedCentral 2011;2(9):WMCRW00941
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Having copied the content of my responses to the reviewer to this box, but the "Send" button does not work. It is not possible to write the responses in this box because a lot of information should be referred and prepared.
Responded by Dr. Hing Chan on 20 Sep 2011 02:16:28 AM