Switchgrass storage effects on the recovery of carbohydrates after liquid hot water pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis

Perennial grasses that would be used for bioenergy and bioproducts production will need to be stored for various periods of time to ensure a continual feedstock supply to a bioprocessing facility. The effects of storage practices on grass composition and the response of grasses to subsequent bioprocesses such as pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis needs to be understood to develop the most efficient storage protocols. This study examined the effect of outdoor storage of round switchgrass bales on composition before and after liquid hot water pretreatment (LHW) and enzymatic hydrolysis. This study also examined the effect of washing LHW pretreated biomass prior to enzymatic hydrolysis. It was determined that switchgrass composition after baling was stable. As expected, glucan and lignin contents increased after LHW due to decreases in xylan and galactan. Washing biomass prior to enzymatic hydrolysis reduced saccharification, especially in samples from the interior of the bale, by at least 5%

Fractional boundary value problems: Analysis and numerical methods

This is the author's PDF of an article published in Fractional calculus and applied analysis 2011. The original publication is available at www.springerlink.comThis journal article discusses nonlinear boundary value problems.Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologi

Evidence for endothermic ancestors of crocodiles at the stem of archosaur evolution

Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 77(6):1051–1067. 2004. © 2004 by The University of Chicago.Physiological, anatomical, and developmental features of the crocodilian heart support the paleontological evidence that the ancestors of living crocodilians were active and endothermic, but the lineage reverted to ectothermy when it invaded the aquatic, ambush predator niche. In endotherms, there is a functional nexus between high metabolic rates, high blood flow rates, and complete separation of high systemic blood pressure from low pulmonary blood pressure in a four-chambered heart. Ectotherms generally lack all of these characteristics, but crocodilians retain a four-chambered heart. However, crocodilians have a neurally controlled, pulmonary bypass shunt that is functional in diving. Shunting occurs outside of the heart and involves the left aortic arch that originates from the right ventricle, the foramen of Panizza between the left and right aortic arches, and the cog-tooth valve at the base of the pulmonary artery. Developmental studies show that all of these uniquely crocodilian features are secondarily derived, indicating a shift from the complete separation of blood flow of endotherms to the controlled shunting of ectotherms. We present other evidence for endothermy in stem archosaurs and suggest that some dinosaurs may have inherited the trait.Roger S. Seymour, Christina L. Bennett-Stamper, Sonya D. Johnston, David R. Carrier, and Gordon C. Grig

ADRENERGIC RECEPTORS IN CORONARY ARTERIES *

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72463/1/j.1749-6632.1967.tb41248.x.pd

Radiological survey of Latty Avenue in the vicinity of the former Cotter site, Hazelwood/Berkeley, Missouri (LM001)

A radiological survey was conducted over a proposed construction corridor in the vicinity of the former Cotter site at 9200 Latty Avenue. The survey included gamma exposure rates at the ground surface and at 1 m above the surface throughout the site, sampling of surface soil, sampling of subsurface soil from auger holes, gamma logging of auger holes, and sampling of subsurface water. The results of the survey demonstrated some degree of radioactive contamination in all areas of the construction corridor, extending north and south in some regions onto adjacent private properties. Redistribution of the contamination by flooding, surface runoff, and road and utility line activities was evident. The pattern of contamination ranged from widespread to isolated spots and was found to occur from near the surface to depths of approx.1.8 m. The most highly contaminated region was noted on both sides of Latty Avenue adjacent to the former Cotter site. Concentrations of /sup 230/Th in soil from that region were as high as 16,000 pCi/g

Preliminary site survey report for the Sacandaga site, Glenville, New York

Of the numerous original buildings, only Building P, the Critical Assembly Building, remains standing. Front and rear views of the small, concrete block building are shown. The remaining structure is situated on /approximately/51 acres of land, most of which is covered by a heavy growth of trees and brush. An abundance of rubbish and dismantled structural materials is strewn throughout the site. It is estimated that the total inventory of radioactive materials in the site included /approximately/300 kg of uranium in the form of solid metal discs, /approximately/8 mg of plutonium on platinum discs covered with plastic, and /approximately/3 mg of radium sealed in a radium/beryllium source. Both /sup 238/U and /sup 235/U in solid metal form were used in experiments for breeder reactor studies. This type of assessment typically involves a two-stage process. The first part consists of a site visit and preliminary scoping survey to verify that no radiological hazard exists at a specific site, and to collect sufficient data to plan the second part of the process--the more comprehensive radiological survey. The preliminary radiological scoping survey discussed in this report was conducted. Compared to the large size of the property, the survey was limited in scope, including only the 5--6 acres enclosed within the fence and concentrating on those areas having the greatest possibility of containing residual radioactive material. 3 refs., 8 figs., 3 tabs

Determining Training Needs for Cloud Infrastructure Investigations using I-STRIDE

As more businesses and users adopt cloud computing services, security vulnerabilities will be increasingly found and exploited. There are many technological and political challenges where investigation of potentially criminal incidents in the cloud are concerned. Security experts, however, must still be able to acquire and analyze data in a methodical, rigorous and forensically sound manner. This work applies the STRIDE asset-based risk assessment method to cloud computing infrastructure for the purpose of identifying and assessing an organization's ability to respond to and investigate breaches in cloud computing environments. An extension to the STRIDE risk assessment model is proposed to help organizations quickly respond to incidents while ensuring acquisition and integrity of the largest amount of digital evidence possible. Further, the proposed model allows organizations to assess the needs and capacity of their incident responders before an incident occurs.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables, 5th International Conference on Digital Forensics and Cyber Crime; Digital Forensics and Cyber Crime, pp. 223-236, 201

An Arbitrary Curvilinear Coordinate Method for Particle-In-Cell Modeling

A new approach to the kinetic simulation of plasmas in complex geometries, based on the Particle-in- Cell (PIC) simulation method, is explored. In the two dimensional (2d) electrostatic version of our method, called the Arbitrary Curvilinear Coordinate PIC (ACC-PIC) method, all essential PIC operations are carried out in 2d on a uniform grid on the unit square logical domain, and mapped to a nonuniform boundary-fitted grid on the physical domain. As the resulting logical grid equations of motion are not separable, we have developed an extension of the semi-implicit Modified Leapfrog (ML) integration technique to preserve the symplectic nature of the logical grid particle mover. A generalized, curvilinear coordinate formulation of Poisson's equations to solve for the electrostatic fields on the uniform logical grid is also developed. By our formulation, we compute the plasma charge density on the logical grid based on the particles' positions on the logical domain. That is, the plasma particles are weighted to the uniform logical grid and the self-consistent mean electrostatic fields obtained from the solution of the logical grid Poisson equation are interpolated to the particle positions on the logical grid. This process eliminates the complexity associated with the weighting and interpolation processes on the nonuniform physical grid and allows us to run the PIC method on arbitrary boundary-fitted meshes.Comment: Submitted to Computational Science & Discovery December 201