Catalytic ozonation of phenolic acids over a Mn-Ce-O catalyst

Catalytic ozonation of a simulated phenolic wastewater composed by six acids: syringic, vanillic, 3,4,5-trimethoxybenzoic, veratric, protocatechuic and 4-hydroxybenzoic normally present in olive mill wastewaters was studied over a Mn-Ce-O laboratorial catalyst under different operating conditions. A high improvement in total organic carbon (TOC) degradation was observed even when low catalyst concentrations were used when compared with single ozonation. The influence of the medium pH in the performance of both single and catalytic ozonation was assessed in a wide range of pH values. An inhibitory effect in TOC removal was observed in the catalytic process performance at high pH values. The use of radical scavengers proved that this catalytic system does not follow a free radical pathway. No differences were observed between fresh and used catalyst structure and morphology by SEM and XRD. Nevertheless, a decrease on BET surface area was detected. Leaching of Mn as well as carbon adsorption due to organic intermediates deposition at the catalyst surface was analyzed for the recovered catalyst at the end of the experiments. The role of the catalyst in the catalytic ozonation pathway was discussed being concluded that the main mechanism should be developed through surface reactions involving both pollutants and ozone adsorption. A series of feed-batch trials was performed to test Mn-Ce-O activity along the time. A slight decrease on TOC removal was observed from the first to the second use, remaining the catalyst performance constant after the third ru

Vascular disease modeling using induced pluripotent stem cells: Focus in Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome

Transparency document related to this article can be found online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2015.10.014Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) represent today an invaluable tool to create disease cell models for modeling and drug screening. Several lines of iPSCs have been generated in the last 7 years that changed the paradigm for studying diseases and the discovery of new drugs to treat them. In this article we focus our attention to vascular diseases in particular Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS), a devastating premature aging disease caused by a mutation in the lamin A gene. In general, patients die because of myocardial infarction or stroke. Because the patients are fragile the isolation of a particular type of cells is very difficult. Therefore in the last 5 years, researchers have used cells derived from iPSCs to model aspects of the HGPS and to screen libraries of chemicals to retard or treat the disease.This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (PTDC/SAU-TOX/121887/2010; SFRH/BD/71042/2010; SFRH/BD/51678/2011; SFRH/BPD/79323/2011) and COMPETE funding (Project “Stem cell based platforms for Regenerative and Therapeutic Medicine”, Centro-07-ST24-FEDER-002008). The authors declare no conflict of interest to disclose

Compression and query execution within column oriented databases

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2005.Includes bibliographical references (p. 65-66).Compression is a known technique used by many database management systems ("DBMS") to increase performance[4, 5, 14]. However, not much research has been done in how compression can be used within column oriented architectures. Storing data in column increases the similarity between adjacent records, thus increase the compressibility of the data. In addition, compression schemes not traditionally used in row-oriented DBMSs can be applied to column-oriented systems. This thesis presents a column-oriented query executor designed to operate directly on compressed data. 'We show that operating directly on compressed data can improve query performance. Additionally, the choice of compression scheme depends on the expected query workload, suggesting that for ad-hoc queries we may wish to store a column redundantly under different coding schemes. Furthermore, the executor is designed to be extensible so that the addition of new compression schemes does not impact operator implementation. The executor is part of a larger database system, known as CStore [10].by Miguel C. Ferreira.M.Eng

The influence of coastal processes on inner shelf sediment distribution : the Eastern Algarve Shelf (Southern Portugal)

This study examines sediment distribution patterns in the Southeastern Algarve inner shelf (southern Portugal), an area characterized by marked variations in its coastal environment and low continental supply of sediments. The specific goals of this study were to identify the principal sediment sources and the factors influencing sediment transport paths and deposition. A total of 199 samples, collected along the shelf from the Guadiana River mouth to Olhos de Água, were analyzed. Grain-size distribution and parameters were measured for all the samples. Terrigenous and biogenic components of sand were identified in 38 samples, and results analyzed using multivariate non-linear multidimension scaling (MDS) and cluster analysis. Patterns of sediment distribution in this area of the inner shelf vary according to water depth and exhibit significant longshore variation, related mainly to coastal processes (littoral drift and storm currents) and to a lower degree to sediment sources. Sand is dominant at all depths, reflecting the influence of littoral drift in the supply and redistribution of shelf sediments. Fine and gravelsized deposits are significant in specific areas and are usually associated with changes in sediment composition. Five sectors have been identified according to sedimentary dynamics. The results, based on geostatistical and multivariate analysis, have allowed detailed sediment distribution maps to be generated, which represent an update of the existing cartography and serve as a tool for the management of coastal and marine resources. They have been furthermore compared with inner shelf sediment dynamics in other regions worldwide, to distinguish between specific regional responses to forcing mechanisms and processes that are more generalized within this type of shelf environments. In this context, the results obtained results in the Algarve study area are of great interest for the understanding of sediment dynamics of sand dominated inner shelves with reduced continental suppl

Solar Photocatalytic Degradation of Sulfamethoxazole by TiO2_{2} Modified with Noble Metals

Application of solar photocatalysis for water treatment is intensively studied. In this work, we investigated TiO2 modified with platinum (Pt/TiO2) and palladium (Pd/TiO2) using sulfamethoxazole (SMX) as the model contaminant. We considered the following parameters: (i) level of TiO2 modification with Pt/Pd, (ii) initial concentration of photocatalysts, (iii) geographic location where processes were conducted, and (iv) natural water matrix. The catalysts characterized by SEM, EDX, DRS, and XRD techniques showed successful deposition of Pd and Pt atoms on TiO2 surface that enabled light absorption in the visible (Vis) range, and therefore caused efficient SMX removal in all tested conditions. A comparison of the rate constants of SMX degradation in various conditions revealed that modification with Pd gave better results than modification with Pt, which was explained by the better optical properties of Pd/TiO2. The removal of SMX was higher with Pd/TiO2 than with Pt/TiO2, independent of the modification level. In the experiments with the same modification level, similar rate constants were achieved when four times the lower concentration of Pd/TiO2 was used as compared with Pt/TiO2. Formation of four SMX transformation products was confirmed, in which both amine groups are involved in photocatalytic oxidation. No toxic effect of post-reaction solutions towards Lepidium sativum was observed

Grabbing attention while reading website pages: the influence of verbal emotional cues in advertising

The increasing use of the World Wide Web has promised a huge advertising platform for marketers. Investment in online advertising is growing and is expected to overcome traditional media. However, recent studies have reported that users avoid looking at advertising displayed on the World Wide Web. This study aimed at examining the impact of verbal emotional cues (negative/neutral/positive) to capture attention on website’s advertising areas through an eye tracker system. The results revealed significant statistical differences between fixations to negative, positive words and neutral words. Significant differences between the number of fixations and recognition of the target words were found only for the negative valence words. We conclude that negative emotional words could play a major role on user attention to advertising

Endoscopic treatment of bleeding gastric varices with histoacryl (N-butyl-2-cyanoacrylate): a South European single center experience

BACKGROUND: Endoscopic injection of N-butyl-2-cyanoacrylate is the current recommended treatment for gastric variceal bleeding. Despite the extensive worldwide use, there are still differences related to the technique, safety, and long term-results. We retrospectively evaluated the efficacy and safety of cyanoacrylate in patients with gastric variceal bleeding. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between January 1998 and January 2010, 97 patients with gastric variceal bleeding underwent endoscopic treatment with a mixture of N-butyl-2-cyanoacrylate and Lipiodol(TM). Ninety-one patients had cirrhosis and 6 had non-cirrhotic portal hypertension. Child-Pugh score at presentation for cirrhotic patients was A-12.1 %; B-53.8 %; C-34.1 % and median MELD score at admission was 13 (3-26). Successful hemostasis, rebleeding rate and complications were reviewed. Median time of follow up was 19 months (0.5-126). RESULTS: A median mixture volume of 1.5 mL (0.6 to 5 mL), in 1 to 8 injections, was used, with immediate hemostasis rate of 95.9 % and early rebleeding rate of 14.4 %. One or more complications occurred in 17.5 % and were associated with the use of Sengstaken-Blakemore tube before cyanoacrylate and very early rebleeding (p < 0.05). Hospital mortality rate during initial bleeding episode was 9.3 %. Very early rebleeding was a strong and independent predictor for in-hospital mortality (p < 0.001). Long-term mortality rate was 58.8 %, in most of the cases secondary to hepatic failure. CONCLUSION: N-butyl-2-cyanoacrylate is a rapid, easy and highly effective modality for immediate hemostasis of gastric variceal bleeding with an acceptable rebleeding rate. Patients with very early rebleeding are at higher risk of death

Absorção de água, solubilidade em água, propriedades mecânicas e morfológicas de compósitos de glúten de milho e poli(hidroxibutirato-co-valerato) (PHBV) reforçados com fibras de coco verde.

Neste estudo, fibras de coco verde foram incorporadas em uma matriz composta de glúten de milho (GM) e poli(hidroxibutirato-co-valerato) (PHBV). As composições foram processadas por extrusão, onde o teor máximo de glúten adicionado à matriz para obter misturas com viscosidade suficientemente baixa para o processamento foi de 50% (em peso) em relação ao teor de PHBV. O teor de fibras nos compósitos variou de 5 a 20% por peso em relação ao peso total dos polímeros. Os plastificantes usados foram acetil tributil citrato (ATBC) e glicerol. Os materiais extrudados foram moldados por compressão a quente para obtenção de corpos de prova para a caracterização das propriedades de absorção de água, solubilidade em água, resistência mecânica, além de propriedades termo-dinâmico-mecânicas (DMTA) e morfológicas. Foi observado que as matrizes apresentaram duas transições vítreas (Tg's) uma para cada componente, indicando que as mesmas são compostas de duas fases (GM) e PHBV. A adição do PHBV ao glúten favoreceu ao aumento da rigidez e houve diminuições significativas na absorção de água e na solubilidade em água, enquanto a presença das fibras provocou, em algumas composições, um aumento no módulo de elasticidade e na resistência à tração

New fluorescent heterocyclic materials: Synthesis, solvatochromic and fluorescence properties

Thienyl- and bithienyl-1,3-benzothiazoles 1 and 2 were synthesised by reacting various formyl thienyl and bithienyl derivatives with o-aminobenzenethiol in moderate to excellent yields. Evaluation of the solvatochromic and fluorescence properties of these compounds was carried out. Due to their strong fluorescence and also the strong push-pull character, benzothiazole derivatives 1 and 2 can be used as potential NLO materials or as fluorescent markers.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT