Technological and safety aspects of CNG home fast refueling units

Despite all global economic shifts and the fact that natural gas is recognized worldwide as the main and the leading alternative to oil products in transportation sector, there is a huge barrier to switch passenger vehicle segment to natural gas – the lack of refueling infrastructure for natural gas vehicles. The key to solving that problem and providing barrier breaking refueling infrastructure solution for natural gas vehicles (NGV) is home fast refueling units. It operates using natural gas (methane), which is being provided through gas pipelines at client’s home, and electricity connection point. It enables an environmentally friendly NGV’s home refueling just in minutes. The underlying technology is one stage hydraulic compressor (instead of multistage mechanical compressor technology) which provides the possibility to compress low pressure gas from residential gas grid to 200 bar for its further usage as a fuel for NGVs. More than efficiency and convenience, the direct hydraulic compressor technology provides compelling cost and lifetime advantages as well as superior convenience over other solutions. Aims of this article is to compare technical, technological and safety aspects of home refueling units and estimate a perspectives of natural gas vehicles as an alternative for regular vehicles

A stability study of transparent conducting WO3/Cu/WO3 coatings with antimicrobial properties

This study was financially supported by ERDF project No. 1.1.1.1/21/A/050 “Large area deposition technologies of multifunctional antibacterial and antiviral nanocoatings”. The Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia, as a Center of Excellence, has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017-TeamingPhase2 under grant agreement No. 739508, project CAMART².WO3/Cu/WO3 coatings are transparent electrodes, but conductivity and transmittance have been observed to decrease with time. This paper reports the improved stability of WO3/Cu/WO3 coatings deposited by magnetron sputtering on glass and polyethylene terephthalate substrates. The stability issues due to Cu oxidation and migration can be addressed by adjusting the deposition parameters. Lowering the sputtering pressure results in denser WO3 films, confirmed by spectroscopic ellipsometry, and thus more stable coatings. The coatings retain their properties in an inert atmosphere, indicating that Cu oxidation is the main reason for the decrease in conductivity, rather than its migration observed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Optical property modeling is used to optimize the thickness of the three-layer coatings to obtain the highest figure-of-merit for a transparent electrode. A structure of glass/WO3 (70 nm)/Cu (10 nm)/WO3 (45 nm) gives a sheet resistance of 14 Ω/sq. and a light transmittance of 65% at 600 nm. In addition, the antimicrobial properties of these coatings are revealed. A decrease up to 105 of the gram-negative Escherichia coli and gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus bacterial colony formation units is found for several WO3/Cu/WO3-based coatings. In the case of the MS2 (Emesvirus zinderi) bacteriophage, a decrease in infectious particles for up to 104 plaque-forming units is obtained. The results indicate that more stable samples also had higher antimicrobial activity. --//-- This is an open access article M. Zubkins, V. Vibornijs, E. Strods, I. Aulika, A. Zajakina, A. Sarakovskis, K. Kundzins, K. Korotkaja, Z. Rudevica, E. Letko, J. Purans, A stability study of transparent conducting WO3/Cu/WO3 coatings with antimicrobial properties, Surfaces and Interfaces, Volume 41, 2023, 103259, ISSN 2468-0230, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.surfin.2023.103259 published under the CC BY licence.ERDF project No. 1.1.1.1/21/A/050. The Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia, as a Center of Excellence, has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017-TeamingPhase2 under grant agreement No. 739508, project CAMART²

Immunization of Cats against Fel d 1 Results in Reduced Allergic Symptoms of Owners.

An innovative approach was tested to treat cat allergy in humans by vaccinating cats with Fel-CuMV (HypoCatTM), a vaccine against the major cat allergen Fel d 1 based on virus-like particles derived from cucumber mosaic virus (CuMV-VLPs). Upon vaccination, cats develop neutralizing antibodies against the allergen Fel d 1, which reduces the level of reactive allergen, thus lowering the symptoms or even preventing allergic reactions in humans. The combined methodological field study included ten cat-allergic participants who lived together with their cats (n = 13), that were immunized with Fel-CuMV. The aim was to determine methods for measuring a change in allergic symptoms. A home-based provocation test (petting time and organ specific symptom score (OSSS)) and a general weekly (or monthly) symptom score (G(W)SS) were used to assess changes in allergic symptoms. The petting time until a pre-defined level of allergic symptoms was reached increased already early after vaccination of the cats and was apparent over the course of the study. In addition, the OSSS after provocation and G(W)SS recorded a persistent reduction in symptoms over the study period and could serve for long-term assessment. Hence, the immunization of cats with HypoCatTM (Fel-CuMV) may have a positive impact on the cat allergy of the owner, and changes could be assessed by the provocation test as well as G(W)SS

Spatio-temporal dynamics and behavioural ecology of a "demersal" fish population as detected using research survey pelagic trawl catches: The Eastern Baltic Sea cod (Gadus morhua)

Cod is usually monitored for scientific purposes using bottom trawl surveys, although its regular pelagic occurrence is well documented. Here we analysed, using Generalized Additive Models, the spatio-temporal changes in the Eastern Baltic cod adult population using pelagic catches from an acoustic survey covering 37 years and the whole central Baltic Sea. Our analysis shows that in the northern areas cod catch per unit effort (CPUE, kg h-1) was high in the early 1980s whereas it dropped and remained very low thereafter. Conversely, in the southernmost area CPUE largely oscillated after the early 1990s. Our model was able to capture key ecological features of the Baltic cod such as preferred depth of occurrence and response to hypoxic conditions. The model also revealed a clear daily cycle of CPUEs, indicating diel vertical migrations at the population level. The temporal trends of pelagic CPUEs generally followed those from the bottom trawl surveys, although differences were observed especially in the recent years with a relative decline in the cod occurring in the pelagic waters. Our results point to the great potential of acoustic survey trawl catches to complement bottom trawl surveys for investigating the spatio-temporal population dynamics and behaviour of the Baltic cod

A Turbulent political history and the legacy of state Socialism in the Baltic countries

This chapter provides a survey of the political, socio-economic and demographic development of the Baltic countries. It is meant to give readers a general understanding of the setting in which large urban housing estates were built from the 1960s to the 1980s. The chapter begins with an account of the history of the Baltic countries, including their emergence as independent nations, their incorporation into the USSR and their reappearance on the world map in 1991. The second section analyses the modernisation of the Baltic economies, the Soviet strategies for industrialisation and their impact on the housing sector. The Baltic region enjoyed somewhat higher living standards and exhibited greater openness to Western influences than other union republics, which made Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania attractive to economic migrants from other parts of the USSR. The analysis also shows that the Baltic countries experienced demographic modernisation earlier than other regions of the USSR. A high demand for labour is driven by Soviet strategies for economic development, and slow population growth in the host countries, particularly in Estonia and Latvia, contributed to the persistence of high levels of immigration throughout the post-war decades. Due to their large numbers, migrant workers significantly transformed the composition of the urban population in the Baltic countries. Through a combination of factors, including the housing allocation mechanism, immigrants gained privileged access to new accommodation, and they became over-represented in the housing estates. This development connects the future of the housing estates with the integration of immigrants who settled in the region during the Soviet era