Methods and apparatus for the on-site production of hydrogen peroxide

Methods, apparatus, and applications for the on-site production of hydrogen peroxide are described. An embodiment of the apparatus comprises at least one anolyte chamber coupled to at least one anode, at least one catholyte chamber, wherein the at least one catholyte chamber is coupled to at least one cathode, at least one anode membrane and at least one cathode membrane, wherein the anode membrane is adjacent to the at least one anode, wherein the cathode membrane is adjacent to the at least one cathode, at least one central chamber disposed between the at least one anolyte chamber and the at least one catholyte chamber. Hydrogen peroxide is produced by reduction of an oxygen-containing gas at the cathode

Short term effects of irradiance on the growth of Pterocladiella capillacea (Gelidiales, Rhodophyta)

Pterocladiella capillacea has been economically exploited for agar extraction in the Azores for many years. Harvesting dropped to a full stop in the early 1990s due to a population collapse, but restarted in 2013. Since then it has been intensively harvested and overexploitation must be prevented, with both sustainable harvesting and effective cultivation practices. This study represents the first attempt to determine optimal conditions for P. capillacea production in the Azores, and evaluates its vegetative growth in two experiments using von Stosch’s medium designed to test entire thallus and tips portions response to different irradiances (30, 70 and 150 μmol photons m¯² s¯¹). The best relative growth rate (RGR) was recorded at 150 μmol photons m¯² s¯¹ for the entire thalli and tips after two-weeks and three-weeks, respectively, indicating that an acclimation period is necessary to assure the growth of this alga under experimental conditions. Higher RGR was obtained at higher irradiance (3.98 ± 2.10% fm day¯¹), but overall, growth rates were low or negative. Epiphytes were a serious problem towards the end of the entire thallus experiments, where Feldmannia irregularis proliferate at all irradiances. Future cultivation approaches complemented with other relevant environmental factors (e.g. pH, photoperiod, salinity), are recommended.FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia projects UID/BIA/00329/2013, 2015 - 2018 and UID/BIA/00329/2019, CIRN (Centro de Investigação de Recursos Naturais, University of the Azores), and CIIMAR (Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research, Porto, Portugal). RFP was supported by a doctoral grant M3.1.2/F/024/2011, Fundo Regional para a Ciência e Tecnologia.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Opportunities for Seaweed Aquaculture Development in the Azores

Jornadas "Ciência nos Açores – que futuro? Tema Ciências Naturais e Ambiente", Ponta Delgada, 7-8 de Junho de 2013.As macroalgas marinhas têm sido largamente usadas para diversos fins. Nos Açores, várias espécies têm sido usadas tradicionalmente na alimentação humana (e.g. Fucus spiralis, Porphyra spp., Laurencia spp. e Osmundea spp.) e para extracção de compostos com interesse na indústria dos ficocolóides (Pterocladiella capilacea e Gelidium spp.). As exigências no controlo da qualidade e as práticas actuais de colheita de macroalgas marinhas selvagens na Europa levantam preocupações ambientais sérias que tornam premente a necessidade se implementarem métodos de produção de biomassa controlados, como é o caso da aquacultura de macroalgas marinhas. Apesar da importância da exploração sustentável dos recursos marinhos existentes nos Açores, não existe informação sobre a viabilidade do cultivo de macroalgas marinhas no Arquipélago. O conhecimento sobre os requisitos básicos para o cultivo em grande escala das espécies nativas seleccionadas e os locais mais apropriados para a sua implementação está em falta. O objectivo principal do presente projecto é avaliar o potencial de cultivo de espécies de macroalgas marinhas seleccionadas, bem como identificar os métodos de cultivo mais adequados. Os resultados do programa de doutoramento serão de extrema importância quer em termos científicos quer em termos empresariais. Permitirão a transferência de tecnologia para o tecido empresarial regional e para a implementação de empresas de base tecnológica indo ao encontro das futuras políticas de financiamento europeias no âmbito do Programa Europeu Horizonte 2020.ABSTRACT: Seaweeds have a wide range of applications. In the Azores, several species of seaweeds were traditionally used either as food (e.g. Fucus spiralis, Porphyra spp., Laurencia spp. and Osmundea spp.) or for extraction of chemical products (Pterocladiella capilacea e Gelidium spp.). The product quality control requirements and concerns regarding the environmental sustainability of current wild seaweed biomass harvesting practices in Europe demand for controlled seaweed aquaculture. Despite the interest in exploiting Azorean seaweed resources, there is no information on the feasibility of cultivating seaweed in the Azores. Basic knowledge on large scale cultivation requirements of the selected native species is missing. The present project it’s aimed at evaluating the culture potential of selected Azorean species. The resulting outputs will be extremely important for both academic and economic purposes, bringing together the research and the market. Innovative enterprise will benefit from this project and develop technological breakthroughs into viable products with real commercial potential. This main objective is in according with the principal strategy of the Horizon 2020 that will tackle societal challenges after the end of FP7.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologi

Growth responses of Macrocystis pyrifera (Laminariales), Southern Chile, juvenile sporophytes to nutrient limitation

1st Mares Conference on Marine Ecosystems Health and Conservation. Olhão, Portugal 17-21 November 2014.Kelp forests represent some of the most conspicuous coastal habitats and today we recognize only one giant kelp species (Macrocystis pyrifera) distributed globally [1, 2]. M. pyrifera is recognized as a perennial kelp species with a low capacity of energy storage, whereas its high productivity is associated the availability of nitrogen from the water column [3]. The relation between M. pyrifera growth and biomass production results from a plastic response of the sporophytes to temporal and spatial variability in nitrogen availability [4, 5]. However, the low storage capacity of giant kelp [6, 7] is clearly disadvantageous during periods of suboptimal environmental conditions; as those that occur seasonally in California and the inland waters of southern Chile. Due to an increased demand for kelp biomass in Chile for the world alginate industry and abalone farming in Chile [8, 9] there is an increased demand of raw material and interest for developing kelp aquaculture technologies [10]. The present study evaluates the effect of different nitrogen availability on the growth and regeneration of juvenile fronds of M. pyrifera sporophytes from southern Chile and explore its consequences for the development of seeding strategies of kelp farming in southern Chile

Prion Infectivity and PrPBSE in the Peripheral and Central Nervous System of Cattle 8 Months Post Oral BSE Challenge

After oral exposure of cattle with classical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (C-BSE), the infectious agent ascends from the gut to the central nervous system (CNS) primarily via the autonomic nervous system. However, the timeline of this progression has thus far remained widely undetermined. Previous studies were focused on later time points after oral exposure of animals that were already 4 to 6 months old when challenged. In contrast, in this present study, we have orally inoculated 4 to 6 weeks old unweaned calves with high doses of BSE to identify any possible BSE infectivity and/or PrPBSE in peripheral nervous tissues during the first eight months postinoculation (mpi). For the detection of BSE infectivity, we used a bovine PrP transgenic mouse bioassay, while PrPBSE depositions were analyzed by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and by protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA). We were able to show that as early as 8 mpi the thoracic spinal cord as well as the parasympathetic nodal ganglion of these animals contained PrPBSE and BSE infectivity. This shows that the centripetal prion spread starts early after challenge at least in this age group, which represents an essential piece of information for the risk assessments for food, feed, and pharmaceutical products produced from young calves

Understanding the Random Displacement Model: From Ground-State Properties to Localization

We give a detailed survey of results obtained in the most recent half decade which led to a deeper understanding of the random displacement model, a model of a random Schr\"odinger operator which describes the quantum mechanics of an electron in a structurally disordered medium. These results started by identifying configurations which characterize minimal energy, then led to Lifshitz tail bounds on the integrated density of states as well as a Wegner estimate near the spectral minimum, which ultimately resulted in a proof of spectral and dynamical localization at low energy for the multi-dimensional random displacement model.Comment: 31 pages, 7 figures, final version, to appear in Proceedings of "Spectral Days 2010", Santiago, Chile, September 20-24, 201

Identification of the bulk pairing symmetry in high-temperature superconductors: Evidence for an extended s-wave with eight line nodes

we identify the intrinsic bulk pairing symmetry for both electron and hole-doped cuprates from the existing bulk- and nearly bulk-sensitive experimental results such as magnetic penetration depth, Raman scattering, single-particle tunneling, Andreev reflection, nonlinear Meissner effect, neutron scattering, thermal conductivity, specific heat, and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. These experiments consistently show that the dominant bulk pairing symmetry in hole-doped cuprates is of extended s-wave with eight line nodes, and of anisotropic s-wave in electron-doped cuprates. The proposed pairing symmetries do not contradict some surface- and phase-sensitive experiments which show a predominant d-wave pairing symmetry at the degraded surfaces. We also quantitatively explain the phase-sensitive experiments along the c-axis for both Bi_{2}Sr_{2}CaCu_{2}O_{8+y} and YBa_{2}Cu_{3}O_{7-y}.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure

3D morphometric analysis of calcified cartilage properties using micro-computed tomography

Objective: Our aim is to establish methods for quantifying morphometric properties of calcified cartilage (CC) from micro-computed tomography (mu CT). Furthermore, we evaluated the feasibility of these methods in investigating relationships between osteoarthritis (OA), tidemark surface morphology and open subchondral channels (OSCCs). Method: Samples (n = 15) used in this study were harvested from human lateral tibial plateau (n = 8). Conventional roughness and parameters assessing local 3-dimensional (3D) surface variations were used to quantify the surface morphology of the CC. Subchondral channel properties (percentage, density, size) were also calculated. As a reference, histological sections were evaluated using Histopathological osteoarthritis grading (OARSI) and thickness of CC and subchondral bone (SCB) was quantified. Results: OARSI grade correlated with a decrease in local 3D variations of the tidemark surface (amount of different surface patterns (r(s) = -0.600, P = 0.018), entropy of patterns (EP) (r(s) = -0.648, P = 0.018), homogeneity index (HI) (r(s) = 0.555, P = 0.032)) and tidemark roughness (TMR) (r(s) = -0.579, P = 0.024). Amount of different patterns (ADP) and EP associated with channel area fraction (CAF) (r(p) = 0.876, P <0.0001; r(p) = 0.665, P = 0.007, respectively) and channel density (CD) (r(p) = 0.680, P = 0.011; r(p) = 0.582, P = 0.023, respectively). TMR was associated with CAF (r(p) = 0.926, P <0.0001) and average channel size (r(p) = 0.574, P = 0.025). CC topography differed statistically significantly in early OA vs healthy samples. Conclusion: We introduced a mu-CT image method to quantify 3D CC topography and perforations through CC. CC topography was associated with OARSI grade and OSCC properties; this suggests that the established methods can detect topographical changes in tidemark and CC perforations associated with OA. (c) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Osteoarthritis Research Society International. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Peer reviewe

The impact of ice crystal shapes, size distributions and spatial structures of cirrus clouds on solar radiative fluxes

The solar radiative properties of cirrus clouds depend on ice particle shape, size, and orientation, as well as on the spatial cloud structure. Radiation schemes in atmospheric circulation models rely on estimates of cloud optical thickness only. In the present work, a Monte Carlo radiative transfer code is applied to various cirrus cloud scenarios to obtain the radiative response of uncertainties in the above-mentioned microphysical and spatial cloud properties (except orientation). First, plane-parallel homogeneous (0D) clouds with different crystal shapes (hexagonal columns, irregular polycrystals) and 114 different size distributions have been considered. The resulting variabilities in the solar radiative fluxes are in the order of a few percent for the reflected and about 1% for the diffusely transmitted fluxes. Largest variabilities in the order of 10% to 30% are found for the solar broadband absorptance. However, these variabilities are smaller than the flux differences caused by the choice of ice particle geometries. The influence of cloud inhomogeneities on the radiative fluxes has been examined with the help of time series of Raman lidar extinction coefficient profiles as input for the radiative transfer calculations. Significant differences between results for inhomogeneous and plane-parallel clouds were found. These differences are in the same order of magnitude as those arising from using extremely different crystal shapes for the radiative transfer calculations. From this sensitivity study, the ranking of cirrus cloud properties according to their importance in solar broadband radiative transfer is optical thickness, ice crystal shape, ice particle size, and spatial structure