Data-driven Models for Advanced Control of Acid Gas Treatment in Waste-to-energy Plants

This paper presents a study of identification and validation of data-driven models for the description of the acid gas treatment process, a key step of flue gas cleaning in waste-to-energy plants. The acid gas removal line of an Italian plant, based on the injection of hydrated lime, Ca(OH)2, for the abatement of hydrogen chloride, HCl, is investigated. The final goal is to minimize the feed rate of reactant needed to achieve the required HCl removal performance, also reducing as a consequence the production of solid process residues. Process data are collected during dedicated plant tests carried out by imposing Generalized Binary Noise (GBN) sequences to the flow rate of Ca(OH)2. Various input-output and state-space models are identified with success, and related model orders are optimized. The models are then validated on different datasets of routine plant operation. The proposed modeling approach appears reliable and promising for control purposes, once implemented into advanced model-based control structures

Oleic acid esterification catalyzed by zeolite y - model of the biomass conversion

Lignocellulosic biomass is a promising renewable source for production of fuels and chemicals with significant life cycle and economy of scale advantages over other biomass sources, such as starches, vegetable oils, and animal fats. The large-scale application of zeolites in biomass conversion can be explained by with adjustable confinement at the nano scale, Brønsted acid strength that derive from its Si/Al ratio and high thermal stability1. In this context, the aim of this study was to test the catalytic activity of zeolite H-Y with high Si/Al ratio for its application in the esterification reaction of oleic acid (OA) with methanol (MeOH) for the synthesis of alkyl esters. Zeolite Y in protonated form with Si / Al = 80 ratio was obtained from Zeolyst International. The catalytic activity of zeolite H-Y was carried out using the esterification reaction of OA by MeOH. The experiments were conducted in reflux system with magnetic stirring at different temperatures (60 and 75 °C), catalyst contents (10 %), OA mass ratios (1:2, 1:3 and 1:6) and residence times (0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4.5, 6, 8, 12 and 16 hs). The reaction mixture was collected from the reflux system, and cooled to room temperature. The solution was removed from the catalyst by filtration. The conversion was defined as the change of acid content before and after the oil reaction by the acid content of the initial oil. An interpretation of the catalytic activity is given from theoretical calculations.Analysis indicate that the increase in reaction time results in higher ester conversion rates, reaching the reaction equilibrium after 16 hs of reaction, according to Kirumakki et. al. the time required to achieve equilibrium depends on the reactants used2. It is observed that the conversion of OA results in a high reaction time when is compared to previous works2-4, the main effect for this system is centered in the high Si/Al ratio, which results in the less presence of active sites available in the catalytic process. The optimum reaction conditions were obtained with a molar ratio of 1:3 and 75 °C, resulting in 82 % conversion of ester after 16 hs of reaction. The higher alcohol concentration in the system shifts the equilibrium of the reaction towards the formation of products, as well as the decrease in the viscosity of the reactional system, reducing the transfer rate, which results in a high conversion when compared to the others catalytic tests. According to our previous work, the esterification of carboxylic acids presents a competitive adsorption between methanol and carboxylic acid on the Brønsted acid site5, so that the main hypothesis for the lower product conversion in the esterification reaction with 1:6 molar ratio is related to the adsorption of MeOH on the active site. The effect of self-catalysis on the reactional environment is not reported in the studies cited, according to Raia et. al., auto-catalysis in esterification has a significant importance in the conversion of free fatty acids6. The uncatalyzed reaction resulted in approximately 16 % conversion after 16 hs of reaction, and this result serves as a comparison for the conditions in which the catalyst is added to the system. The H-Y catalyst proved to be efficient and promising for the esterification of OA with MeOH, however, it presented a high reaction time can be optimized with the increase of temperature and greater mass of catalyst, thus, further studies are needed to describe the reaction mechanisms in order to understand the conversion of biomass on the surface of acid zeolites.Fil: Gomes, Glaucio José. Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales y Agrimensura. Departamento de Química. Laboratorio de Estructura Molecular y Propiedades; Argentina. Universidade Estadual de Maringá. Departamento de Engenharia Química.; BrasilFil: Dal Pozzo, Daniel M.. Universidade Federal do Paraná; BrasilFil: Zalazar, Maria Fernanda. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Química Básica y Aplicada del Nordeste Argentino. Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Naturales y Agrimensura. Instituto de Química Básica y Aplicada del Nordeste Argentino; ArgentinaFil: Costa, M. B.. Universidade Federal do Paraná; BrasilFil: Arroyo, Pedro Augusto. Universidade Estadual de Maringá. Departamento de Engenharia Química.; BrasilFil: Bittencourt, Paulo R. S.. Universidade Federal do Paraná; BrasilVI San Luis School and Conference on Surfaces, Interfaces and CatalysisSanta FeArgentinaInstituto de Investigaciones en Catálisis y PetroquímicaUniversidad Nacional del Litora

Oleic Acid Esterification Catalyzed By Zeolite Y-Model of the Biomass Conversion

Residual oils and fats are promising renewable sources for the production of liquid fuels and the synthesis of various chemicals with significant life cycle and large-scale economic advantages over other biomass sources. Thus, oleic acid esterification was investigated on zeolites type FAU and sulfuric acid by kinetic, spectroscopic assessments and theoretical calculations using a hybrid ONIOM scheme. In the catalytic tests, the solid catalyst with the highest Si/Al (H-Y-80) ratio showed the highest catalytic activity for esterification (92% conversion) as compared to H-Y-5.2 (66% conversion), Na-Y (15% conversion) and homogeneous acid catalysis (89% conversion). The catalytic activity between different acid catalysts is discussed. It was observed that the acidity of the active sites and the hydrophobicity resulting from the Si/Al molar ratio influence the esterification conversion. Theoretical calcultations predicts that the voluminous confined space of the FAU zeolite perfectly accommodates the oleic acid molecule in the adsorption step (Eads= -25.5 kJ mol-1) and the van der Waals interactions of the zeolite walls with the aliphatic chain help to accommodate the bulky molecule between the supercages. Experimental and theoretical results confirm that H-Y-80 zeolite applied in the esterification reaction can be an efficient catalyst in processes involving conversion of unsaturated fatty acids.Fil: Gomes, Glaucio José. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Química Básica y Aplicada del Nordeste Argentino. Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Naturales y Agrimensura. Instituto de Química Básica y Aplicada del Nordeste Argentino; ArgentinaFil: Dal Pozzo, Daniel M.. Universidade Federal do Paraná; BrasilFil: Zalazar, Maria Fernanda. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Química Básica y Aplicada del Nordeste Argentino. Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Naturales y Agrimensura. Instituto de Química Básica y Aplicada del Nordeste Argentino; ArgentinaFil: Budke Costa, Michelle. Universidade Federal do Paraná; BrasilFil: Arroyo, Pedro Augusto. Universidade Estadual de Maringá; BrasilFil: Bittencourt, Paulo R. S.. Universidade Federal do Paraná; Brasi

Using shared needles for subcutaneous inoculation can transmit bluetongue virus mechanically between ruminant hosts

Bluetongue virus (BTV) is an economically important arbovirus of ruminants that is transmitted by Culicoides spp. biting midges. BTV infection of ruminants results in a high viraemia, suggesting that repeated sharing of needles between animals could result in its iatrogenic transmission. Studies defining the risk of iatrogenic transmission of blood-borne pathogens by less invasive routes, such as subcutaneous or intradermal inoculations are rare, even though the sharing of needles is common practice for these inoculation routes in the veterinary sector. Here we demonstrate that BTV can be transmitted by needle sharing during subcutaneous inoculation, despite the absence of visible blood contamination of the needles. The incubation period, measured from sharing of needles, to detection of BTV in the recipient sheep or cattle, was substantially longer than has previously been reported after experimental infection of ruminants by either direct inoculation of virus, or through blood feeding by infected Culicoides. Although such mechanical transmission is most likely rare under field condition, these results are likely to influence future advice given in relation to sharing needles during veterinary vaccination campaigns and will also be of interest for the public health sector considering the risk of pathogen transmission during subcutaneous inoculations with re-used needles

SF3B1-mutated chronic lymphocytic leukemia shows evidence of NOTCH1 pathway activation including CD20 downregulation

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is characterized by a low CD20 expression, in part explained by an epigenetic-driven downregulation triggered by mutations of the NOTCH1 gene. In the present study, by taking advantage of a wide and well-characterized CLL cohort (n=537), we demonstrate that CD20 expression is downregulated in SF3B1-mutated CLL in an extent similar to NOTCH1-mutated CLL. In fact, SF3B1-mutated CLL cells show common features with NOTCH1-mutated CLL cells, including a gene expression profile enriched of NOTCH1-related gene sets and elevated expression of the active intracytoplasmic NOTCH1. Activation of the NOTCH1 signaling and down-regulation of surface CD20 in SF3B1-mutated CLL cells correlate with over-expression of an alternatively spliced form of DVL2, a component of the Wnt pathway and negative regulator of the NOTCH1 pathway. These findings are confirmed by separately analyzing the CD20-dim and CD20-bright cell fractions from SF3B1-mutated cases as well as by DVL2 knock-out experiments in CLL-like cell models. Altogether, the clinical and biological features that characterize NOTCH1-mutated CLL may also be recapitulated in SF3B1-mutated CLL, contributing to explain the poor prognosis of this CLL subset and providing the rationale for expanding novel agents-based therapies to SF3B1-mutated CLL

Gravitational Waves From Known Pulsars: Results From The Initial Detector Era

We present the results of searches for gravitational waves from a large selection of pulsars using data from the most recent science runs (S6, VSR2 and VSR4) of the initial generation of interferometric gravitational wave detectors LIGO (Laser Interferometric Gravitational-wave Observatory) and Virgo. We do not see evidence for gravitational wave emission from any of the targeted sources but produce upper limits on the emission amplitude. We highlight the results from seven young pulsars with large spin-down luminosities. We reach within a factor of five of the canonical spin-down limit for all seven of these, whilst for the Crab and Vela pulsars we further surpass their spin-down limits. We present new or updated limits for 172 other pulsars (including both young and millisecond pulsars). Now that the detectors are undergoing major upgrades, and, for completeness, we bring together all of the most up-to-date results from all pulsars searched for during the operations of the first-generation LIGO, Virgo and GEO600 detectors. This gives a total of 195 pulsars including the most recent results described in this paper.United States National Science FoundationScience and Technology Facilities Council of the United KingdomMax-Planck-SocietyState of Niedersachsen/GermanyAustralian Research CouncilInternational Science Linkages program of the Commonwealth of AustraliaCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research of IndiaIstituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare of ItalySpanish Ministerio de Economia y CompetitividadConselleria d'Economia Hisenda i Innovacio of the Govern de les Illes BalearsNetherlands Organisation for Scientific ResearchPolish Ministry of Science and Higher EducationFOCUS Programme of Foundation for Polish ScienceRoyal SocietyScottish Funding CouncilScottish Universities Physics AllianceNational Aeronautics and Space AdministrationOTKA of HungaryLyon Institute of Origins (LIO)National Research Foundation of KoreaIndustry CanadaProvince of Ontario through the Ministry of Economic Development and InnovationNational Science and Engineering Research Council CanadaCarnegie TrustLeverhulme TrustDavid and Lucile Packard FoundationResearch CorporationAlfred P. Sloan FoundationAstronom

First narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves from known pulsars in advanced detector data

Spinning neutron stars asymmetric with respect to their rotation axis are potential sources of continuous gravitational waves for ground-based interferometric detectors. In the case of known pulsars a fully coherent search, based on matched filtering, which uses the position and rotational parameters obtained from electromagnetic observations, can be carried out. Matched filtering maximizes the signalto- noise (SNR) ratio, but a large sensitivity loss is expected in case of even a very small mismatch between the assumed and the true signal parameters. For this reason, narrow-band analysis methods have been developed, allowing a fully coherent search for gravitational waves from known pulsars over a fraction of a hertz and several spin-down values. In this paper we describe a narrow-band search of 11 pulsars using data from Advanced LIGO’s first observing run. Although we have found several initial outliers, further studies show no significant evidence for the presence of a gravitational wave signal. Finally, we have placed upper limits on the signal strain amplitude lower than the spin-down limit for 5 of the 11 targets over the bands searched; in the case of J1813-1749 the spin-down limit has been beaten for the first time. For an additional 3 targets, the median upper limit across the search bands is below the spin-down limit. This is the most sensitive narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves carried out so far

The role of spectrophotometry in the diagnosis of melanoma

Background. Spectrophotometry (SPT) could represent a promising technique for the diagnosis of cutaneous melanoma (CM) at earlier stages of the disease. Starting from our experience, we further assessed the role of SPT in CM early detection. Methods. During a health campaign for malignant melanoma at National Cancer Institute of Naples, we identified a subset of 54 lesions to be addressed to surgical excision and histological examination. Before surgery, all patients were investigated by clinical and epiluminescence microscopy (ELM) screenings; selected lesions underwent spectrophotometer analysis. For SPT, we used a video spectrophotometer imaging system (Spectroshade® MHT S.p.A., Verona, Italy). Results. Among the 54 patients harbouring cutaneous pigmented lesions, we performed comparison between results from the SPT screening and the histological diagnoses as well as evaluation of both sensitivity and specificity in detecting CM using either SPT or conventional approaches. For all pigmented lesions, agreement between histology and SPT classification was 57.4%. The sensitivity and specificity of SPT in detecting melanoma were 66.6% and 76.2%, respectively. Conclusions. Although SPT is still considered as a valuable diagnostic tool for CM, its low accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity represent the main hamper for the introduction of such a methodology in clinical practice. Dermoscopy remains the best diagnostic tool for the preoperative diagnosis of pigmented skin lesions

Search for post-merger gravitational waves from the remnant of the binary neutron star merger GW170817

In Advanced LIGO, detection and astrophysical source parameter estimation of the binary black hole merger GW150914 requires a calibrated estimate of the gravitational-wave strain sensed by the detectors. Producing an estimate from each detector's differential arm length control loop readout signals requires applying time domain filters, which are designed from a frequency domain model of the detector's gravitational-wave response. The gravitational-wave response model is determined by the detector's opto-mechanical response and the properties of its feedback control system. The measurements used to validate the model and characterize its uncertainty are derived primarily from a dedicated photon radiation pressure actuator, with cross-checks provided by optical and radio frequency references. We describe how the gravitational-wave readout signal is calibrated into equivalent gravitational-wave-induced strain and how the statistical uncertainties and systematic errors are assessed. Detector data collected over 38 calendar days, from September 12 to October 20, 2015, contain the event GW150914 and approximately 16 of coincident data used to estimate the event false alarm probability. The calibration uncertainty is less than 10% in magnitude and 10 degrees in phase across the relevant frequency band 20 Hz to 1 kHz