707 research outputs found
Sustainable engineering labs - A Portuguese perspective
Strategies to reduce emissions responsible for greenhouse effect, and contributing to economy decarbonisation, should focus on using renewable energy, increasing energy efficiency both at production, distribution and consumption (equipment efficiency), sustainable mobility, urban renewal and rehabilitation and behavioural changes. Considering that man spend a significant part of their lives inside buildings that represent a significant share of energy consumption, buildings turn out to be an attractive area to invest efforts, aiming to improve efficiency, as recommended in the European Commission reports. However, despite the goals outlined in the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, there are difficulties in the projection of new buildings that can be classified as nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEB). These include legal and financial obstacles, as insufficient formation of professionals (such as architects, engineers and consultants) able to tackle the challenges. This paper aims to point strategies that can contribute to the creation of a nearly zero energy laboratory in a university environment, that works as a tool for raising awareness about nZEB while improving the future engineering professionals’ skills towards team work and knowledge sharing – a living lab.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Boosting the electrochemical oxygen reduction activity of hemoglobin on fructose@graphene-oxide nanoplatforms
A metal-free oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalyst with outstanding performance was obtained through an easy and one-pot synthesis of hemoglobin functionalized fructose@graphene-oxide (GO) nanocomposites. The active pyridinic nitrogen sites of the highly unfolded proteins together with the excellent electronic properties of GO appears to be the main factors causing the improved electrocatalytic activity
Bacterial community dynamics in horizontal flow constructed wetlands with different plants for high salinity industrial wastewater polishing
This study is focused on the diversity of bacterial communities from two series of horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetlands (CW) polishing high salinity tannery wastewater. Each series was planted with Arundo donax or Sarcocornia sp. in a substrate composed by expanded clay and sand. Chemical and biochemical oxygen demand removal efficiencies were similar in each series, varying between 58 and 67% (inlet COD 218 ± 28 mg L−1) and 60 and 77% (inlet BOD5 37 ± 6 mg L−1), respectively. High numbers of culturable bacteria were obtained from substrate and root samples – 5.75 × 106-3.95 × 108 CFU g−1 recovered on marine agar and 1.72 × 107-8.46 × 108 CFU g−1 on nutrient agar. Fifty bacterial isolates were retrieved from the CW, related phylogenetically to Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, α-, β-, and γ-Proteobacteria. Changes in the bacterial communities, from roots and substrate of each series, related to the plant species, hydraulic loading rates and along CW operation were examined using denaturating gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). The clustering analysis suggested that a diverse and distinct bacterial community inhabits each series, which was related to the type of plant present in each CW.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Warped Spectroscopy: Localization of Frozen Bulk Modes
We study the 10D equation of motion of dilaton-axion fluctuations in type IIB
string compactifications with three-form flux, taking warping into account.
Using simplified models with physics comparable to actual compactifications, we
argue that the lightest mode localizes in long warped throats and takes a mass
of order the warped string scale. Also, Gukov-Vafa-Witten superpotential is
valid for the lightest mass mode; however, the mass is similar to the
Kaluza-Klein scale, so the dilaton-axion should be integrated out of the
effective theory in this long throat regime (leaving a constant
superpotential). On the other hand, there is a large hierarchy between
flux-induced and KK mass scales for moderate or weak warping. This hierarchy
agrees with arguments given for trivial warping. Along the way, we also
estimate the effect of the other 10D supergravity equations of motion on the
dilaton-axion fluctuation, since these equations act as constraints. We argue
that they give negligible corrections to the simplest approximation.Comment: 24pp + appendices, 6 figs, JHEP3 class; v2. corrected reference; v3.
added clarifications; v4. corrected typo
Dynamics of Warped Flux Compactifications
We discuss the four dimensional effective action for type IIB flux
compactifications, and obtain the quadratic terms taking warp effects into
account. The analysis includes both the 4-d zero modes and their KK
excitations, which become light at large warping. We identify an `axial' type
gauge for the supergravity fluctuations, which makes the four dimensional
degrees of freedom manifest. The other key ingredient is the existence of
constraints coming from the ten dimensional equations of motion. Applying these
conditions leads to considerable simplifications, enabling us to obtain the low
energy lagrangian explicitly. In particular, the warped K\"ahler potential for
metric moduli is computed and it is shown that there are no mixings with the KK
fluctuations and the result differs from previous proposals. The four
dimensional potential contains a generalization of the Gukov-Vafa-Witten term,
plus usual mass terms for KK modes.Comment: 37 pages. v2. References added, typos corrected. v3. Matches JHEP
versio
What a difference a methyl group makes-probing choline-urea molecular interactions through urea structure modification
There is a lack of fundamental knowledge on deep eutectic solvents, even for the most extensively
studied mixtures, such as the mixture of cholinium chloride and urea, which prevents a judicious choice
of components to prepare new solvents. The objective of this work is to study and understand the
fundamental interactions between cholinium chloride and urea that lead to the experimentally observed
melting temperature depression. To do so, the structure of urea was strategically and progressively
modified, in order to block certain interaction centres, and the solid–liquid equilibrium data of each
new binary system was experimentally measured. Using this approach, it was concluded that the most
important interaction between cholinium chloride and urea occurs through hydrogen bonding between
the chloride anion and the amine groups. Any blockage of these groups severely hampers the melting
point depression effect. Raman spectroscopy and DFT calculations were utilized to study in more detail
this hydrogen bonding and its nuances.This work was developed in the scope of the project CICECO – Aveiro Institute of Materials, POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007679 (Ref. FCT UID/CTM/50011/2019) and Associate Laboratory LSRELCM,
POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006984 (Ref. FCT UID/EQU/50020/2019), and project MultiBiorefinery (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016403), all financed by national funds through the FCT/
MCTES (PIDDAC) and when appropriate co-financed by FEDER under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement. M. A. R. M. acknowledges financial support from NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000006 – funded by NORTE2020 through PT2020 and ERDF. L. P. S.
acknowledges FCT for her PhD grant (SFRH/BD/135976/2018). C. F. A. acknowledges FCT for her PhD grant (SFRH/BD/129040/2017). M. M. N. and M. M. F. acknowledge FCT for their
researcher contracts (IF/01468/2015 and IF/00894/2015 respectively)
under the program IF 2015.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Open String Wavefunctions in Warped Compactifications
We analyze the wavefunctions for open strings in warped compactifications,
and compute the warped Kahler potential for the light modes of a probe D-brane.
This analysis not only applies to the dynamics of D-branes in warped
backgrounds, but also allows to deduce warping corrections to the closed string
Kahler metrics via their couplings to open strings. We consider in particular
the spectrum of D7-branes in warped Calabi-Yau orientifolds, which provide a
string theory realizations of the Randall-Sundrum scenario. We find that
certain background fluxes, necessary in the presence of warping, couple to the
fermionic wavefunctions and qualitatively change their behavior. This modified
dependence of the wavefunctions are needed for consistency with supersymmetry,
though it is present in non-supersymmetric vacua as well. We discuss the
deviations of our setup from the RS scenario and, as an application of our
results, compute the warping corrections to Yukawa couplings in a simple model.
Our analysis is performed both with and without the presence of D-brane
world-volume flux, as well as for the case of backgrounds with varying dilaton.Comment: 52 pages, refs. added, minor correction
All-fiber fast acousto-optic temporal control of tunable optical pulses
We demonstrate a new all-fiber electrically tunable modulation method which significantly reduces the response time of a Bragg grating acousto-optic modulator. A 4 cm long device is fabricated with a 1 cm grating inscribed in a suspended core fiber. An acoustic pulse train is switched out of phase along the fiber, damping unwanted natural resonant vibrations inside the grating. The device rise time is decreased from 56 to 9 µs by tuning the duty cycle of the driven electrical signal, contributing to achieve the shortest switching time of 15.6 µs. This tunable temporal response reveals unique features to change the profile of optical pulses. High pulse modulation depths are achieved employing a compact acousto-optic modulator, pointing to fast switching of all-fiber photonic devices
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