Design and Performance of an Adsorption Bed with Activated Carbons for Biogas Purification

Organic waste can be efficiently converted into energy using highly efficient energy systems, such as SOFCs coupled to the anaerobic digestion process. SOFC systems fed by biogenous fuels, such as biogas or syngas, suffer long-term stability due to trace compound impacts. It follows that, a mandatory gas cleaning section is needed to remove these pollutants at lower concentrations. This work investigates the adsorption mechanism for micro-contaminant removal through experimental results achieved using solid sorbents. Samples of different sorbent materials were analyzed in the laboratory to determine their performances in terms of sulfur (mainly hydrogen sulfide) and siloxanes (mainly D4-Octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane) adsorption capacities. The analysis shows that the chemical composition of the samples influences the adsorption of H2S (i.e., presence of calcium, iron, copper), while the effect of their textural properties mainly influences the adsorption of siloxane compounds, such as D4. A quantitative analysis was performed considering the influence of gas velocity on adsorption capacity. By increasing the biogas velocity (+45% and +89%), there was an indirect correlation with the H2S adsorption capacity (−27% and −44%). This identified an aspect related to the residence time required to be able to remove and retain the trace compound. The results obtained and summarized were used to develop a strategy for the removal of trace compounds in large-scale plants, e.g., for water purification

Novel infiltration method of membranes over activated carbons electrodes

A novel method to modify activated carbons electrodes through addiction of selective ion exchange membrane (IEM) is presented. Nowadays the preferred method to modify an electrode in an electric double layer supercapacitor is to apply a stand-alone membrane in proximity of the electrode itself. This technique produces some drawbacks in terms of dimensions of the device, increase of the internal series resistance and reduction of the total capacitance. With the present method it is possible to use the membrane with a conformal contact with the electrode or directly in the production of the slurry. In particular the first approach studied consists into melting the membrane and casting and drying it under vacuum over activated carbons. This drying process, is performed in a glass oven B-585 from BÜCHI. In this way it is possible to reduce internal resistance of the device, providing good ion selectivity and maintaining a high capacitance. The second approach consists in exploiting the IEM as polymeric functional binder inside the slurry. It is possible to exploit the long chains of ion exchange polymers to bind activated carbons together and onto the substrate. This strategy allows the substitution of common binders like PVDF, with several benefits in terms of reduced electrical resistance, tunable surface charge of the electrodes, reduced cost and increased sustainability

Performance study of a thin film cation exchange membrane on carbon electrode for supercapacitor application

In this work we report a green procedure for the infiltration of a SPEEK solution into a porous carbon electrode resulting in a thin-film cation exchange membrane. The electrodes have been investigated by a morphological point of view, showing the formation of a thin coating infiltrated into the porous carbonaceous matrix, while mechanical peeling of a tape demonstrated the adhesion of the proposed layer. The fabricated electrodes have been analyzed by electrochemical measurement. The 3-electrode cyclic voltammetry measurements allowed to verify the voltage window resulting in an improved negative potential, while the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy showed a reduction of the electrical resistance. The SPEEK electrode was used in a supercapacitor and deeply characterized by electrochemical analysis. The reported findings demonstrate for the first time the possibility to exploit a cation exchange material in thin film configuration for supercapacitor application with improved performance of the device and exclusively involving the use of nontoxic reagents

A cross-sectional study evaluating hospitalization rates for chronic limb-threatening ischemia during the COVID-19 outbreak in Campania, Italy

The expansion of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) prompted measures of disease containment by the Italian government with a national lockdown on March 9, 2020. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the rate of hospitalization and mode of in-hospital treatment of patients with chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) before and during lockdown in the Campania region of Italy. The study population includes all patients with CLTI hospitalized in Campania over a 10-week period: 5 weeks before and 5 weeks during lockdown (n = 453). Patients were treated medically and/or underwent urgent revascularization and/or major amputation of the lower extremities. Mean age was 69.2 +/- 10.6 years and 27.6% of the patients were women. During hospitalization, 21.9% of patients were treated medically, 78.1% underwent revascularization, and 17.4% required amputations. In the weeks during the lockdown, a reduced rate of hospitalization for CLTI was observed compared with the weeks before lockdown (25 vs 74/100,000 inhabitants/year; incidence rate ratio: 0.34, 95% CI 0.32-0.37). This effect persisted to the end of the study period. An increased amputation rate in the weeks during lockdown was observed (29.3% vs 13.4%; p < 0.001). This study reports a reduced rate of CLTI-related hospitalization and an increased in-hospital amputation rate during lockdown in Campania. Ensuring appropriate treatment for patients with CLTI should be prioritized, even during disease containment measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic or other similar conditions

Linguistic profile automated characterisation in pluripotential clinical high-risk mental state (CHARMS) conditions: methodology of a multicentre observational study

Introduction: Language is usually considered the social vehicle of thought in intersubjective communications. However, the relationship between language and high- order cognition seems to evade this canonical and unidirectional description (ie, the notion of language as a simple means of thought communication). In recent years, clinical high at-risk mental state (CHARMS) criteria (evolved from the Ultra-High-Risk paradigm) and the introduction of the Clinical Staging system have been proposed to address the dynamicity of early psychopathology. At the same time, natural language processing (NLP) techniques have greatly evolved and have been successfully applied to investigate different neuropsychiatric conditions. The combination of at-risk mental state paradigm, clinical staging system and automated NLP methods, the latter applied on spoken language transcripts, could represent a useful and convenient approach to the problem of early psychopathological distress within a transdiagnostic risk paradigm. Methods and analysis: Help-seeking young people presenting psychological distress (CHARMS+/− and Clinical Stage 1a or 1b; target sample size for both groups n=90) will be assessed through several psychometric tools and multiple speech analyses during an observational period of 1-year, in the context of an Italian multicentric study. Subjects will be enrolled in different contexts: Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health (DINOGMI), Section of Psychiatry, University of Genoa—IRCCS Ospedale Policlinico San Martino, Genoa, Italy; Mental Health Department—territorial mental services (ASL 3—Genoa), Genoa, Italy; and Mental Health Department—territorial mental services (AUSL—Piacenza), Piacenza, Italy. The conversion rate to full-blown psychopathology (CS 2) will be evaluated over 2 years of clinical observation, to further confirm the predictive and discriminative value of CHARMS criteria and to verify the possibility of enriching them with several linguistic features, derived from a fine-grained automated linguistic analysis of speech. Ethics and dissemination: The methodology described in this study adheres to ethical principles as formulated in the Declaration of Helsinki and is compatible with International Conference on Harmonization (ICH)-good clinical practice. The research protocol was reviewed and approved by two different ethics committees (CER Liguria approval code: 591/2020—id.10993; Comitato Etico dell’Area Vasta Emilia Nord approval code: 2022/0071963). Participants will provide their written informed consent prior to study enrolment and parental consent will be needed in the case of participants aged less than 18 years old. Experimental results will be carefully shared through publication in peer- reviewed journals, to ensure proper data reproducibility. Trial registration number DOI:10.17605/OSF.IO/BQZTN

26th Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting (CNS*2017): Part 3 - Meeting Abstracts - Antwerp, Belgium. 15–20 July 2017

This work was produced as part of the activities of FAPESP Research,\ud Disseminations and Innovation Center for Neuromathematics (grant\ud 2013/07699-0, S. Paulo Research Foundation). NLK is supported by a\ud FAPESP postdoctoral fellowship (grant 2016/03855-5). ACR is partially\ud supported by a CNPq fellowship (grant 306251/2014-0)

Appropriateness of antiplatelet therapy for primary and secondary cardio- and cerebrovascular prevention in acutely hospitalized older people

Aims: Antiplatelet therapy is recommended for the secondary prevention of cardio- and cerebrovascular disease, but for primary prevention it is advised only in patients at very high risk. With this background, this study aims to assess the appropriateness of antiplatelet therapy in acutely hospitalized older people according to their risk profile. Methods: Data were obtained from the REPOSI register held in Italian and Spanish internal medicine and geriatric wards in 2012 and 2014. Hospitalized patients aged ≥65 assessable at discharge were selected. Appropriateness of the antiplatelet therapy was evaluated according to their primary or secondary cardiovascular prevention profiles. Results: Of 2535 enrolled patients, 2199 were assessable at discharge. Overall 959 (43.6%, 95% CI 41.5–45.7) were prescribed an antiplatelet drug, aspirin being the most frequently chosen. Among patients prescribed for primary prevention, just over half were inappropriately prescribed (52.1%), being mainly overprescribed (155/209 patients, 74.2%). On the other hand, there was also a high rate of inappropriate underprescription in the context of secondary prevention (222/726 patients, 30.6%, 95% CI 27.3–34.0%). Conclusions: This study carried out in acutely hospitalized older people shows a high degree of inappropriate prescription among patients prescribed with antiplatelets for primary prevention, mainly due to overprescription. Further, a large proportion of patients who had had overt cardio- or cerebrovascular disease were underprescribed, in spite of the established benefits of antiplatelet drugs in the context of secondary prevention