ANALYSIS OF NOx EMISSIONS AND SPECIFIC FUEL CONSUMPTION OF A DIESEL ENGINE OPERATING WITH DIESEL/BIODIESEL BLENDS

This study aims to examine experimentally the NOx emissions and the performance of a motor AGRALE M90, single cylinder, operating with diesel and biodiesel blends. The engine was linked to an electric generator, which provided 1500 W, 3000 W and 4500 W to an electrical system. The engine was tested with fuel blends containing different amounts of commercial diesel (B4) with palm biodiesel (B100). NOx emissions, as well as the specific fuel consumption of diesel, biodiesel and their mixtures were measured and analyzed. In this study, emissions of NOx have been prioritized over other pollutants by environmental issues and techniques. Air pollution by NOx causes serious respiratory problems. Furthermore, emissions of NOx enable a qualitative assessment of the combustion process. The results show that the commercial diesel has better performance in terms of energy efficiency and NOx emissions

EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF TERNARY FUEL BLENDS ON AN ASTM-CFR-CETANE ENGINE

This work analyses how ternary blends of biodiesel, anhydrous and hydrous ethanol, and diesel, in different proportions, behave regarding fuel emissions and combustion parameters. The determination of their cetane number, using an ASTM-CFR cetane research engine is also investigated. The base fuels used were 99,9% pure anhydrous ethanol, commercial diesel, which contains 5% of biodiesel in volume, biodiesel from soybean oil, and hydrous ethanol with 7% of water, in volume. The fuel blends werespecified after a careful bibliography research. Five volume fractions of biodiesel (5, 10, 20, 60 and 100%, in volume) and four of ethanol (0, 5, 8 and 15%, also in volume) were used in this study. All blends have endured a mixture stability test prior to being burned, the ones with clear visual phase separation being eventually rejected. The results for the cetane number presented a clear decrease in its value as ethanol was added. Some blends with high ethanol content failed to provide the minimum cetane number for use in compression ignition engines according to the present Brazilian regulations. Concerning the emissions tests, carbon dioxide emissions showed a decreasing trend as the quantity of added ethanol raised. Carbon monoxide emissions, however, showed the opposite trend. The nitrogen oxides emissions presented an increase as more biodiesel was added to the blend. The conclusions as to the impact of changing ethanol’s volume in the blends were discussed taking in consideration important operational remarks. A final analysis was proposed in order to compare anhydrous and hydrous ethanol. A clear reduction in nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide emissions was observed, with an almost identical value for the carbon monoxide emissions. Cetane number for the hydrous ethanol blend, however, suffered a decrease compared to the same blend with anhydrous ethanol

Static Safety for an Actor Dedicated Process Calculus by Abstract Interpretation

The actor model eases the definition of concurrent programs with non uniform behaviors. Static analysis of such a model was previously done in a data-flow oriented way, with type systems. This approach was based on constraint set resolution and was not able to deal with precise properties for communications of behaviors. We present here a new approach, control-flow oriented, based on the abstract interpretation framework, able to deal with communication of behaviors. Within our new analyses, we are able to verify most of the previous properties we observed as well as new ones, principally based on occurrence counting

Technical Report: Technique of Bladder Catheterization in Female Mice and Rats for Intravesical Instillation in Models of Bladder Cancer

Animal models offer a system that enables a better understanding of basic biological questions. Urinary bladder catheterization is a common procedure in models of female urothelial tumours and yet the technique does still need to be described further. The methods described in the existing literature do not outline how the procedure should be adapted for different research goals. In this report, we describe systematically catheterization of female mice and rats as well as analysing several anaesthetic protocols, which can be used to carry out this technical procedure

A Hubble Constant Estimate from Galaxy Cluster and type Ia SNe Observations

In this work, we constrain the Hubble constant parameter,$H_0$, using a combination of the Pantheon sample and galaxy clusters (GC) measurements from minimal cosmological assumptions. Assuming the validity of the cosmic distance duality relation, an estimator is created for $H_0$ that only depends on simple geometrical distances, which is evaluated from Pantheon and a GC angular diameter distance sample afterward. The statistical and systematic errors in GC measurements are summed in quadrature in our analysis. We find $H_0 = 67.22 \pm 6.07$ ${\rm \,km\, s^{-1}\, Mpc^{-1}}$ in $1\sigma$ confidence level. This measurement presents an error of around 9\%, showing that future and better GC measurements can shed light on the current Hubble tension.Comment: 7 pages, two figure

Effects of Extracellular Matrix on the Morphology and Behaviour of Rabbit Auricular Chondrocytes in Culture

Isolated chondrocytes dedifferentiate to a fibroblast-like shape on plastic substrata and proliferate extensively, but rarely form nodules. However, when dissociation is not complete and some cartilage remnants are included in the culture, proliferation decreases and cells grow in a reticular pattern with numerous nodules, which occasionally form small cartilage-like fragments. In an attempt to reproduce this stable chondrogenic state, we added a cartilage protein extract, a sugar extract, and hyaluronan to the medium of previously dedifferentiated chondrocytes. When protein extract was added, many cartilaginous nodules appeared. Hyaluronan produced changes in cell phenotype and behaviour, but not nodule formation. Protein extract has positive effects on the differentiation of previously proliferated chondrocytes and permits nodule formation and the extensive production of type-II collagen. A comparison with incompletely dissociated chondrocyte cultures suggests that the presence of some living cells anchored to their natural extracellular matrix provides some important additional factors for the phenotypical stability of chondrocytes on plastic surfaces. In order to elucidate if it is possible that the incidence of apoptosis is related to the results, we also characterized the molecular traits of apoptosis

In vitro controlled drug release from contact lenses materials under physiological ocular tear flow

Poster presented at the 9th World Meeting on Pharmaceutics, Biopharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology. Lisbon, 31 March-3 April 2014.BASF; Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologi

Assessment of time limit at lowest speed corresponding to maximal oxygen consumption in the four competitive swimming strokes

Time limit at lowest speed of maximal oxygen consumption (TLim-v O2max) was characterized in the 4 swimming strokes, and related with O2max and anaerobic threshold (AnT). 23 elite swimmers performed an incremental protocol for v O2max assessment. 48 hours later, Tlim-v O2max was assessed. O2 was directly measured BxB (K4 b2, Cosmed, Italy) and AnT was assessed individually (YSI 1500L Sport, USA). Tlim-v O2max values were 238.8±39.0, 246.1±51.9, 277.6±85.6 and 331.4±82.7 s in crawl, backstroke, butterfly, and breaststroke (no differences observed). No correlations were found between Tlim-v O2max and O2max, and AnT. However, inverse relationships were observed between Tlim-v O2max and v O2max (r=-0.63, p<0.01) and vAnT (r=-0.52, p=0.01), pointing out that the higher the velocities commonly related to aerobic proficiency, the lower the TLim- v O2max

A Study of Concurrency Bugs and Advanced Development Support for Actor-based Programs

The actor model is an attractive foundation for developing concurrent applications because actors are isolated concurrent entities that communicate through asynchronous messages and do not share state. Thereby, they avoid concurrency bugs such as data races, but are not immune to concurrency bugs in general. This study taxonomizes concurrency bugs in actor-based programs reported in literature. Furthermore, it analyzes the bugs to identify the patterns causing them as well as their observable behavior. Based on this taxonomy, we further analyze the literature and find that current approaches to static analysis and testing focus on communication deadlocks and message protocol violations. However, they do not provide solutions to identify livelocks and behavioral deadlocks. The insights obtained in this study can be used to improve debugging support for actor-based programs with new debugging techniques to identify the root cause of complex concurrency bugs.Comment: - Submitted for review - Removed section 6 "Research Roadmap for Debuggers", its content was summarized in the Future Work section - Added references for section 1, section 3, section 4.3 and section 5.1 - Updated citation

Time Limit at vV02max and V02max Slow Component in Swimming: a pilot study of University Students

The aim oftms study was to measure in swimming-pool conditions, the time to exhaustion at the minimum velocity that elicits maximal oxygen consumption (TLim-vV02max) and to verify the existence of an oxygen uptake slow component (02SC) in freestyle swimming. Ten university students performed a continuous incremental protocol for vV02max assessment. Forty-eight hours later, they swam to exhaustion at vV02max to assess TLim-vV02max and 02SC. V02 was directly measured and swimming velocity was controlled by a visual pacer. Blood lactate concentrations ([La-]) and heart rate (HR) values were also measured. Mean V02max for the incremental test was 54.2±8.2 m1.kg'l.min'l, and the correspondent vV02max was 1.19±O.08 m.S,l The mean duration ofthe TLim-vV02max test was 325±76.5 s. 02SC appeared in the allout swim at VV02max (279.0±195.2 ml.min'l) and it was found to significant1y correlate with the TLim-vV02max (r = .74, p< .05). These results demonstrated that 02SC is observed also in swimming-pool conditions and that TLim-vV02max values are in accordance with typical formulations of aerobic power training sets for swimmers.We wish to thank Prof Dr. José Soares, from the Laboratory of Exercise Physiology of our faculty, for his significant contribution.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio