9,562 research outputs found
Development of high-performance light-weight electrodes for hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells Second quarterly report, Jul. 6 - Oct. 5, 1965
High performance lightweight electrodes for hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell
Development of high-performance lightweight electrodes for hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells Third quarterly report, 6 Oct. 1965 - 5 Jan. 1966
High performance, lightweight electrodes for hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell
About the limits of microfiltration for the purification of wastewaters
In the past, microfiltration was widely used as a
pretreatment step for wastewater stream purification
purposes. Experiences performed during the last years
shows that microfiltration fails to maintain its
performances for longer period of times. Many case studies
demonstrate that the adoption of microfiltration leads to
the failure of the overall process; the severe fouling of the
microfiltration membranes leads to high operating costs
with the consequence to make the treatment of the
wastewater economically unfeasible. The boundary flux
concept is a profitable tool to analyze fouling issues in
membrane processes. The boundary flux value separates an
operating region characterized by reversible fouling
formation from irreversible one. Boundary flux values are
not content, but function of time, as calculated by the subboundary
fouling rate value. The knowledge of both
parameters may fully describe the membrane performances
in sub-boundary operating regimes. Many times, for
wastewater purification purposes, ultrafiltration
membranes appear to be suits better to the needs, even they
exhibit lower permeate fluxes compared to microfiltration.
Key to this choice is that ultrafiltration appears to resist
better to fouling issues, with a limited reduction of the
performances as a function of time. In other words, it
appears that ultrafiltration exhibit higher boundary flux
values and lower sub-boundary fouling rates. In this work,
after a brief introduction to the boundary flux concept, for
many different wastewater streams (more than 20,
produced by the most relevant industries in food,
agriculture, manufacture, pharmaceutics), the boundary
flux and sub-boundary fouling rate values of different
microfiltration and ultrafiltration membranes will be
discussed and compared. The possibility to successfully
use microfiltration as a pretreatment step strongly depends
on the feedstock characteristics and, in detail, on the
particle size of the suspended matter. In most cases,
microfiltration demonstrates to be technically unsuitable
for pretreatment purposes of many wastewater streams; as
a consequence, the adoption of microfiltration pushes
operators to exceed boundary flux conditions, therefore
triggering severe fouling, that leads to economic
unfeasibility of the process in long terms
Chromium recovery by membranes for process reuse in the tannery industry
Leather tanning is a wide common industry all over the
world. In leather processing, water is one of the most
important medium, almost 40-45 L water kg-1 raw-hide or
skin is used by tanneries for processing finished leathers.
The composition of tannery wastewater presents
considerable dissimilarities in the concentration range of
pollutants both of inorganic (chlorides, with concentration
ranging from several hundred to over 10,000 mg L-1 Cl–;
sulphate (VI), ammonium ions and sulphide ions,
exhibiting concentration that ranges from tens to several
hundred mg L-1) and organic (the COD value is usually
several thousand mg L-1 O2). Throughout the years, many
conventional processes have been carried out to treat
wastewater from tannery industry: unfortunately, in this
case, biological treatment methods give rise to an
excessive production of sludge, whereas physical and
chemical methods are too expensive in terms of energy and
reagent costs. In this work, a membrane process based on
NF membrane modules was adopted to treat the tannery
feedstock after primary conventional treatment. In a first
step, the determination of all boundary flux parameters, in
order to inhibit severe fouling formation during operation,
were performed. After this, experimental work was carried
out to validate the approach. The target of water
purification was reached, that is the legal discharge to
municipal sewer system in Italy of 90% of the initial
wastewater stream volume. This allows having an
immediate cost saving of 21%. Moreover, the developed
process leads to a second benefit, that is the production of
5% of the initial volume as a highly chromium-rich
concentrate at no cost suitable to tannery process recycle
and reuse. In this case, cost saving rates exceeds 40%. At
the end, scale-up of the investigated process will be
discussed from technical and economic point of view
Pathway to a Compact SASE FEL Device
Newly developed high peak power lasers have opened the possibilities of
driving coherent light sources operating with laser plasma accelerated beams
and wave undulators. We speculate on the combination of these two concepts and
show that the merging of the underlying technologies could lead to new and
interesting possibilities to achieve truly compact, coherent radiator devices
SASE FEL Storage Ring
We explore the possibility of operating a SASE FEL with a Storage Ring. We
use a semi-analytical model to obtain the evolution inside the undulator by
taking into account the interplay on the laser dynamics due to the induced
energy spread and to the radiation damping. We obtain the Renieri's limit for
the stationary output power and discuss the possibility of including in our
model the effect of the beam instabilities.Comment: 5 page
Joint searches between gravitational-wave interferometers and high-energy neutrino telescopes: science reach and analysis strategies
Many of the astrophysical sources and violent phenomena observed in our
Universe are potential emitters of gravitational waves (GWs) and high-energy
neutrinos (HENs). A network of GW detectors such as LIGO and Virgo can
determine the direction/time of GW bursts while the IceCube and ANTARES
neutrino telescopes can also provide accurate directional information for HEN
events. Requiring the consistency between both, totally independent, detection
channels shall enable new searches for cosmic events arriving from potential
common sources, of which many extra-galactic objects.Comment: 4 pages. To appear in the Proceedings of the 2d Heidelberg Workshop:
"High-Energy Gamma-rays and Neutrinos from Extra-Galactic Sources",
Heidelberg (Germany), January 13-16, 200
Raman-scattered O VI Features in the Symbiotic Nova RR Telescopii
RR Tel is an interacting binary system in which a hot white dwarf (WD) accretes matter from a Mira-type variable star via gravitational capture of its stellar wind. This symbiotic nova shows intense Raman-scattered O VI 1032 and 1038 features at 6825 ËšA and 7082 ËšA. We present high-resolution optical spectra of RR Tel taken in 2016 and 2017 with the Magellan Inamori Kyocera Echelle (MIKE) spectrograph at Magellan-Clay telescope, Chile. We aim to study the stellar wind accretion in RR Tel from the profile analysis of Raman O VI features. With an asymmetric O VI disk model, we derive a representative Keplerian speed of > 35 km s−1 , and the corresponding scale < 0.8 au. The best-fit for the Raman profiles is obtained with a mass loss rate of the Mira MË™ ∼ 2 × 10−6 M yr−1 and a wind terminal velocity v∞ ∼ 20 km s−1 . We compare the MIKE data with an archival spectrum taken in 2003 with the Fibre-fed Extended Range Optical Spectrograph (FEROS) at the MPG/ESO 2.2 m telescope. It allows us to highlight the profile variation of the Raman O VI features, indicative of a change in the density distribution of the O VI disk in the last two decades. We also report the detection of O VI recombination lines at 3811 ËšA and 3834 ËšA, which are blended with other emission lines. Our profile decomposition suggests that the recombination of O VII takes place nearer to the WD than the O VI 1032 and 1038 emission region.Fil: Heo, J. E.. Observatorio Gemini; Chile. Universidad de La Serena; Chile. Sejong University; Corea del SurFil: Lee, H. W.. Universidad de Sejong; Corea del SurFil: Angeloni, R.. Universidad de La Serena; ChileFil: Palma, Tali. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba. Departamento de AstrofÃsica Estelar; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientÃficas y Técnicas. Centro CientÃfico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Di Mille, F.. Observatorio Las Campanas; Chil
Therapeutic approach in glioblastoma multiforme with primitive neuroectodermal tumor components: case report and review of the literature
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and aggressive malignant glioma that is treated with first-line therapy, using surgical resection followed by local radiotherapy and concomitant/adjuvant temozolomide (TMZ) treatment. GBM is characterised by a high local recurrence rate and a low response to therapy. Primitive neuroectodermal tumour (PNET) of the brain revealed a low local recurrence rate; however, it also exhibited a high risk of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) dissemination. PNET is treated with surgery followed by craniospinal irradiation (CSI) and platinum-based chemotherapy in order to prevent CSF dissemination. GBM with PNET-like components (GBM/PNET) is an emerging variant of GBM, characterised by a PNET-like clinical behaviour with an increased risk of CSF dissemination; it also may benefit from platinum-based chemotherapy upfront or following failure of GBM therapy. The results presented regarding the management of GBM/PNET are based on case reports or case series, so a standard therapeutic approach for GBM/PNET is not defined, constituing a challenging diagnostic and therapeutic dilemma. In this report, a case of a recurrent GBM/PNET treated with surgical resection and radiochemotherapy as Stupp protocol, and successive platinum-based chemotherapy due to the development of leptomeningeal dissemintation and an extracranial metastasis, is discussed. A review of the main papers regarding this rare GBM variant and its therapeutic approach are also reported. In conclusion, GBM/PNET should be treated with a multimodal approach including surgery, chemoradiotherapy, and/or the early introduction of CSI and platinum-based chemotherapy upfront or at recurrence
Reversible, High-Affinity Surface Capturing of Proteins Directed by Supramolecular Assembly
The ability to design surfaces with reversible, high-affinity protein binding sites represents a significant step forward in the advancement of analytical methods for diverse biochemical and biomedical applications. Herein, we report a dynamic supramolecular strategy to directly assemble proteins on surfaces based on multivalent host–guest interactions. The host–guest interactions are achieved by one-step nanofabrication of a well-oriented β-cyclodextrin host-derived self-assembled monolayer on gold (β-CD-SAM) that forms specific inclusion complexes with hydrophobic amino acids located on the surface of the protein. Cytochrome c, insulin, α-chymotrypsin, and RNase A are used as model guest proteins. Surface plasmon resonance and static time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry studies demonstrate that all four proteins interact with the β-CD-SAM in a specific manner via the hydrophobic amino acids on the surface of the protein. The β-CD-SAMs bind the proteins with high nanomolar to single-digit micromolar dissociation constants (KD). Importantly, while the proteins can be captured with high affinity, their release from the surface can be achieved under very mild conditions. Our results expose the great advantages of using a supramolecular approach for controlling protein immobilization, in which the strategy described herein provides unprecedented opportunities to create advanced bioanalytic and biosensor technologies
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