Application of the SAFT-γ Mie group contribution equation of state to fluids of relevance to the oil and gas industry

Calculated data for all the figures presented in publication

Involuntary Rhythmic Leg Movements Time-Locked With the Respiratory Cycle

Involuntary rhythmic leg movements in childhood is an uncommon condition, the generators of which remain unknown. We report on a male 3 years of age with distinct features providing important clues concerning the location of one of these generators. At the age of 7 months, the previously healthy young male started with low frequency, rhythmic, and continuous (both during wakefulness and sleep) flexion/extension movements of the lower limbs. Movements interfered significantly with gait acquisition, and, despite normal cognitive development, he was able to walk only at age 2 years, 4 months. The neurologic examination revealed the absence of automatic stepping in the neonatal period, but was otherwise normal. A polygraphic electroencephalogram/electromyogram EEG/EMG) recording, at the age of 2 years, 9 months, revealed rhythmic and synchronous legs with EMG activity at 0.5 Hz. A more complete polygraphic recording at the age of 3 years, 10 months, showed a lower frequency (0.35 Hz) for the movements, which were time-locked with the respiratory cycle. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain revealed an increased T2 signal in the upper medulla-lower pons regions. The generator of the rhythmic legs movements is postulated to be the respiratory center, connecting with the reticulospinal projecting neurons through an aberrant pathway

Liquid-Vapor Equilibrium of Multicomponent Cryogenic Systems

Liquid-vapor and solid-vapor equilibria at low to moderate pressures and low temperatures are important in many solar system environments, including the surface and clouds of Titan, the clouds of Uranus and Neptune, and the surfaces of Mars and Triton. The familiar cases of ideal behavior are limiting cases of a general thermodynamic representation for the vapor pressure of each component in a homogeneous multicomponent system. The fundamental connections of laboratory measurements to thermodynamic models are through the Gibbs-Duhem relation and the Gibbs-Helmholtz relation. Using laboratory measurements of the total pressure, temperature, and compositions of the liquid and vapor phases at equilibrium, the values of these parameters can be determined. The resulting model for vapor-liquid equilibrium can then conveniently and accurately be used to calculate pressures, compositions, condensation altitudes, and their dependencies on changing climatic conditions. A specific system being investigated is CH4-C2H6-N2, at conditions relevant to Titan's surface and atmosphere. Discussed are: the modeling of existing data on CH4-N2, with applications to the composition of Titan's condensate clouds; some new measurements on the CH4-C2H6 binary, using a high-precision static/volumetric system, and on the C2H6-N2 binary, using the volumetric system and a sensitive cryogenic flow calorimeter; and describe a new cryogenic phase-equilibrium vessel with which we are beginning a detailed, systematic study of the three constituent binaries and the ternary CH4-C2H6-N2 system at temperatures ranging from 80 to 105 K and pressures from 0.1 to 7 bar

Mechanical cleaning of graphene

Contamination of graphene due to residues from nanofabrication often introduces background doping and reduces charge carrier mobility. For samples of high electronic quality, post-lithography cleaning treatments are therefore needed. We report that mechanical cleaning based on contact mode AFM removes residues and significantly improves the electronic properties. A mechanically cleaned dual-gated bilayer graphene transistor with hBN dielectrics exhibited a mobility of ~36,000 cm2/Vs at low temperature.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Efficient C-Phase gate for single-spin qubits in quantum dots

Two-qubit interactions are at the heart of quantum information processing. For single-spin qubits in semiconductor quantum dots, the exchange gate has always been considered the natural two-qubit gate. The recent integration of magnetic field or g-factor gradients in coupled quantum dot systems allows for a one-step, robust realization of the controlled phase (C-Phase) gate instead. We analyze the C-Phase gate durations and fidelities that can be obtained under realistic conditions, including the effects of charge and nuclear field fluctuations, and find gate error probabilities of below 10-4, possibly allowing fault-tolerant quantum computation.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Thermal inactivation of Byssochlamys nivea in pineapple nectar combined with preliminary high pressure treatments

Byssochlamys nivea is a thermal resistant filamentous fungi and potential micotoxin producer. Recent studies have verified the presence of ascospores of such microorganism in samples of pineapple nectars. Although the majority of filamentous fungi have limited heat resistance and are easily destroyed by heat, Byssochlamys nivea ascospores have shown high thermal resistance. The aim of this work was to evaluate the application of linear and Weibull models on thermal inactivation (70, 80 and 90ºC) of Byssochlamys nivea ascospores in pineapple nectar after pretreatment with high pressure (550MPa or 650MPa during 15min). Following the treatments, survival curves were built up for each processing temperature and adjusted for both models. It was observed that survival curves at 90°C after high pressure pretreatment at 550 MPa/15 min did not fit well to linear and Weibull models. For all the other treatments, the Weibull model presented a better fit. At 90ºC without pressure treatment, the Weibull model also showed a better adjustment, having a larger R2 and a smaller RMSE. Regarding the process effectiveness, a 5-log reduction (t5), as recommended for pasteurization, was only achieved for Byssochlamys nivea ascospores presented in pineapple nectar at 90ºC/10.7 min with previous high pressure treatment of 650 MPa for 15 min. Considering the high intensity and energy demanding process with possibly product damage, other preventive and alternative treatments are being investigated

Report on social economy & household resilience: portuguese national report

Current attempts to define the social economy are associated with the Charter of principles of social economy CEP-CMAF from 20021. It says that: social economy organizations are social and economic entities operating in all sectors. They are distinguished mainly by their objectives and characteristic form of entrepreneurship. The social economy includes organizations such as cooperatives, mutual societies, associations and foundations. These companies are particularly active in certain areas, such as social protection, social services, health care, banking, insurance, agricultural production, consumer issues, associative work, crafts, housing, supplies, neighbourhood services, education and training, and the area of sport culture and recreation. In the context of the fight against social exclusion, the social economy is understood as initiatives in the field of labour market policy, in particular the socio-professional integration of socially excluded groups, opposing the unjustified polarization of income societies

Artificial intelligence as a resilient tool for fighting inequalities in the COVID-19 crisis

Can artificial intelligence (AI) be a sustainable way to help solving the Covid-19 global problem? What does the way how welfare states, charity organizations and labour markets are dealing with the pandemic crisis tells us about the AI capacity for reducing exposition of underprivileged groups to the desease? It is becoming more and more visible how the new coronavirus pandemic is affecting specifically the most deprived and vulnerable groups, and also the big difference that welfare states and their policies make. What did the pandemic show about the relations between social inequality, welfare state provision and AI? This presentation will discuss the role of AI as a tool for public policies fighting inequalities that were amplified during the Covid-19 crisis. It will be analysed how the welfare state, the labour market and social communities are already incorporating AI tools and how this can eventually produce more resilient paths. Accelareted and amplified by the Covid-19, several processes of AI penetration in health, education, healthcare, social security, public administrations, labour and surveillance of citizens, became a subject of public discussion. Artificial intelligence is currently a process of long-term change in health and biotechnologies, long-distance education, teleworking, automation, robotization, consumption behaviours, surveillance and human enhancement. An in-deep analysis of the Portuguese case will support the lessons that can be learnt from AI and its use in public policies in a context of pandemic crisis, leading to a set of political recommendations, to promote its application as a resilient tool to fight inequalitiesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Socio-economic practices of resilience: portuguese national report

The current report presents the results of the analysis of the interviews taken by the Portuguese team within the RESCuE project. The objective of this report is double. On the one hand, we aim at providing a description of the main resilience practices. We take here resilience in a broad sense as responses shocks in families lives either caused by the crisis or happening in their context. On the other hand, we aim to provide an analysis of the resources and societal processes that are called into play in these practices as well as a tentative assessment of their effects in families’ lifes in the short, medium and long term

The spatial dimension of household’s resilience : portuguese national report

The current report presents the results of the analysis of the interviews that were made by the Portuguese team within the RESCUE project. The goal of this report was to explore the data collected during fieldwork from a spatial perspective. We thus followed an essentially comparative method, focusing on phenomena which presented different aspects or configurations in the rural and urban areas of our sample