Torrefaction of Conservation Reserve Program biomass: a techno-economic evaluation

The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), which was initiated to prevent soil erosion, provides a large amount of cellulosic biomass that is potentially useful for bioenergy production. We investigated the effects of torrefaction conditions on the physicochemical properties of CRP biomass using an elemental analyzer, a thermogravimetric analyzer, and a calorimeter. Results suggest that the upgraded biomass is a hydrophobic, high-energy density, and low-moisture-content material. The study on biomass polymer composition showed how polymer components changed with processing conditions. The polysaccharides in biomass were degraded significantly at 300 °C, suggesting that processing conditions should be managed properly for sugar or energy recovery. Our economic analysis suggested that the processing cost for a torrefaction plant with an annual capacity of 100,000 tons of CRP biomass is $16.3 per ton of feedstock. Further analysis of the effects of torrefaction on the biomass supply chain suggested that processing could save pelletization and transportation costs

Qualitative and quantitative analysis of lignocellulosic biomass using infrared techniques: A mini-review

Current wet chemical methods for biomass composition analysis using two-step sulfuric acid hydrolysis are time-consuming, labor-intensive, and unable to provide structural information about biomass. Infrared techniques provide fast, low-cost analysis, are non-destructive, and have shown promising results. Chemometric analysis has allowed researchers to perform qualitative and quantitative study of biomass with both near-infrared and mid-infrared spectroscopy. This review summarizes the progress and applications of infrared techniques in biomass study, and compares the infrared and the wet chemical methods for composition analysis. In addition to reviewing recent studies of biomass structure and composition, we also discuss the progress and prospects for the applications of infrared techniques

Role of glucose in the repair of cell membrane damage during squeeze distortion of erythrocytes in microfluidic capillaries

The rapid development of portable precision detection methods and the crisis of insufficient blood supply worldwide has led scientists to study mechanical visualization features beyond the biochemical properties of erythrocytes. Combined evaluation of currently known biochemical biomarkers and mechanical morphological biomarkers will become the mainstream of single-cell detection in the future. To explore the mechanical morphology of erythrocytes, a microfluidic capillary system was constructedin vitro, with flow velocity and glucose concentration as the main variables, and the morphology and ability of erythrocytes to recover from deformation as the main objects of analysis. We showed the mechanical distortion of erythrocytes under various experimental conditions. Our results showed that glucose plays important roles in improving the ability of erythrocytes to recover from deformation and in repairing the damage caused to the cell membrane during the repeated squeeze process. These protective effects were also confirmed inin vivoexperiments. Our results provide visual detection markers for single-cell chips and may be useful for future studies in cell aging

CloudBrain-NMR: An Intelligent Cloud Computing Platform for NMR Spectroscopy Processing, Reconstruction and Analysis

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has served as a powerful analytical tool for studying molecular structure and dynamics in chemistry and biology. However, the processing of raw data acquired from NMR spectrometers and subsequent quantitative analysis involves various specialized tools, which necessitates comprehensive knowledge in programming and NMR. Particularly, the emerging deep learning tools is hard to be widely used in NMR due to the sophisticated setup of computation. Thus, NMR processing is not an easy task for chemist and biologists. In this work, we present CloudBrain-NMR, an intelligent online cloud computing platform designed for NMR data reading, processing, reconstruction, and quantitative analysis. The platform is conveniently accessed through a web browser, eliminating the need for any program installation on the user side. CloudBrain-NMR uses parallel computing with graphics processing units and central processing units, resulting in significantly shortened computation time. Furthermore, it incorporates state-of-the-art deep learning-based algorithms offering comprehensive functionalities that allow users to complete the entire processing procedure without relying on additional software. This platform has empowered NMR applications with advanced artificial intelligence processing. CloudBrain-NMR is openly accessible for free usage at https://csrc.xmu.edu.cn/CloudBrain.htmlComment: 11 pages, 13 figure

Electron and hole g-factors and spin dynamics of negatively charged excitons in CdSe/CdS colloidal nanoplatelets with thick shells

We address spin properties and spin dynamics of carriers and charged excitons in CdSe/CdS colloidal nanoplatelets with thick shells. Magneto-optical studies are performed by time-resolved and polarization-resolved photoluminescence, spin-flip Raman scattering and picosecond pump-probe Faraday rotation in magnetic fields up to 30 T. We show that at low temperatures the nanoplatelets are negatively charged so that their photoluminescence is dominated by radiative recombination of negatively charged excitons (trions). Electron g-factor of 1.68 is measured and heavy-hole g-factor varying with increasing magnetic field from -0.4 to -0.7 is evaluated. Hole g-factors for two-dimensional structures are calculated for various hole confining potentials for cubic- and wurtzite lattice in CdSe core. These calculations are extended for various quantum dots and nanoplatelets based on II-VI semiconductors. We developed a magneto-optical technique for the quantitative evaluation of the nanoplatelets orientation in ensemble

Intraperitoneal ropivacaine and early postoperative pain and postsurgical outcomes after laparoscoipc herniorrhaphy in toddlers: a randomized clinical trial

Background Postoperative pain can cause physiological distress, postoperative complications, and extended lengths of hospitalized stay. In children, management of postoperative pain is still recognized as being inadequate. Objective The aim of this trial was to investigate the effects of intraperitoneal ropivacaine on postoperative pain, and recovery of bowel function and emetic events after laparoscopic herniorrhaphy in toddlers. Methods Seventy-six children aged from 9 months to 3 years were recruited between August 2013 and June 2014 at Tongji Hospital and randomly assigned into two groups. One group received intraperitoneal ropivacaine right before surgery and the control group received intraperitoneal saline. A standard combined general anesthesia procedure was performed under regular monitoring. Postoperative pain was assessed by the FLACC scale. Postoperative analgesic consumption, time to flatus, time to first stool, and postoperative emetic events were also recorded. Results When compared with the control group, children who received intraperitoneal ropivacaine experienced less pain 0–4 h after surgery [P < 0.001, difference in median FLACC (95% CI) for 2 h time point is 2.00 (0.87–3.13), for 4 h time point is 1.00 (0.55–1.45)]. In addition, the number of toddlers who received analgesia 0–24 h after surgery in the ropivacaine group was lower than that in the control group [P < 0.001, difference in proportions (95% CI) is 0.575 (0.3865–0.7638)]. Compared with the control group, time to flatus in ropivacaine group was also much shorter [21.1 h vs 16.7 h, P = 0.04, difference in mean (95% CI) is 4.4 (1.49–7.28)], and the time to first stool after surgery was earlier in the ropivacaine group [30.7 h vs 25.6 h, P = 0.003, difference in mean (95% CI) is 5.1 (1.78–8.45)]. Furthermore, the incidence of emetic events in the ropivacaine group was significantly lower than the control group [32.4% vs 11.1%, P = 0.03, difference in proportions (95% CI) is 0.212 (0.0246–0.4002)]. Conclusion The present results indicate that intraperitoneal ropivacaine reduces early postoperative pain and improves recovery after laparoscopic herniorrhaphy in toddlers. Therefore, IPLA is a good stratagem for postoperative pain management after laparoscopic surgery in toddlers

XCloud-VIP: Virtual Peak Enables Highly Accelerated NMR Spectroscopy and Faithful Quantitative Measures

Background: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is an important bio-engineering tool to determine the metabolic concentrations, molecule structures and so on. The data acquisition time, however, is very long in multi-dimensional NMR. To accelerate data acquisition, non-uniformly sampling is an effective way but may encounter severe spectral distortions and unfaithful quantitative measures when the acceleration factor is high. Objective: To reconstruct high fidelity spectra from highly accelerated NMR and achieve much better quantitative measures. Methods: A virtual peak (VIP) approach is proposed to self-learn the prior spectral information, such as the central frequency and peak lineshape, and then feed these information into the reconstruction. The proposed method is further implemented with cloud computing to facilitate online, open, and easy access. Results: Results on synthetic and experimental data demonstrate that, compared with the state-of-the-art method, the new approach provides much better reconstruction of low-intensity peaks and significantly improves the quantitative measures, including the regression of peak intensity, the distances between nuclear pairs, and concentrations of metabolics in mixtures. Conclusion: Self-learning prior peak information can improve the reconstruction and quantitative measures of spectra. Significance: This approach enables highly accelerated NMR and may promote time-consuming applications such as quantitative and time-resolved NMR experiments