Stepwise Analysis Of Gasification Reactions With Aspen Plus And CPFD

The energy from biomass can be utilized through the thermochemical conversion processes of pyrolysis and gasification. Biomass such as wood chips is heated in a gasification reactor to produce a synthesis gas containing CO, H2 and CH4. The gas can be further processed to bioproducts or fuels. The thermochemical process involves devolatilization of wood followed by steam gasification, CO2 gasification, methanation, water gas shift reactions and methane reforming. To optimize the performance of the reactor, it is important to study each of the reactions separately. The reactions are simulated individually using the chemical process optimization software Aspen Plus. The results are compared with simulations performed with the Computational Particle Fluid Dynamic (CPFD) software Barracuda VR 15. The CPFD methodology solves the fluid and particle equations in three dimensions with the transient flow and is time-consuming. Aspen Plus is one dimensional and solves the included reactions fast. The results of the Aspen Plus and CPFD simulations, given as product gas compositions (CO, CO2, CH4 and H2), show that each reaction contributes to the product gas composition differently. Comparison between Aspen Plus and CPFD simulations of individual gasification reactions show good agreement. However, when all reactions are included in the simulations, there is a deviation in the volume fraction of product gas composition

Enhancing Teachers’ Emotional Awareness Through Continuing Professional Development: Mission Possible?

In the context of the contemporary emphasis on the school’s role in supporting student wellbeing, this qualitative study explored the teachers’ experience of a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme, which focused on enhancing teachers’ emotional awareness within the context of everyday life. An implicit assumption in this approach is that student wellbeing can be nurtured (or undermined) through the everyday relations of teaching and learning in which emotional experiences are integrated. Focus groups with 22 primary and secondary school teachers in four schools in Norway were carried out, and a thematic analysis was conducted. The findings provide an illustration of how enhancing emotional awareness can strengthen professional competence in ways that can benefit the wellbeing of both teachers and students. The findings might inform a wider debate across national boundaries about the value of prioritising emotional awareness as an aspect of teachers’ CPD regarding their role in supporting student wellbeing.publishedVersio

Assessing and Prioritizing Challenges Facing Bioenergy Supply Chain in Norway: a Delphi-AHP Method

Norway is leading the share of renewable energy in Europe by almost 75%. However, the share of bioenergy in Norway’s energy supply is insignificant. Bioenergy, the most common type of renewable energy, generates more energy than all other forms. This fact demonstrates the value of bioenergy, which will play an increasingly important part in the future energy mix. There are different biomass resources such as agricultural crop residues, forestry, wood processing residues, algae, dedicated energy crops, and municipal and wet organic waste. Biofuel markets in Norway are relatively immature. In past decades, bioenergy consumption in Norway ranged between 4% and 6% of the total primary energy supply. Norway has experienced a gradual increase in total energy supply of biofuels and wastes, and it has almost doubled since 1990, which is 80 petajoule in 2020. However, various barriers are hindering the development of the biomass industry. The present study aims to identify and classify Norway’s biomass supply chain challenges and prioritize them using the Delphi-Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. Based on a comprehensive literature review, 42 challenges were recognized and classified into seven major categories. Then, a Delphi technique is used to define and choose the main challenges in the context of Norway through an expert panel. Finally, 4 main categories, 9 sub-categories, and 37 challenge indicators related to Norway’s biomass industry were selected. Moreover, the AHP method is employed to determine the weight of the challenges using a geometric mean approach. The results show that ‘high investment cost’, ‘Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission’, ‘minor differences between the energy prices achievable for the sales of heat and electricity’, and ‘small market size’ were the most critical challenge indicators

Enhancing Teachers’ Emotional Awareness Through Continuing Professional Development: Mission Possible?

In the context of the contemporary emphasis on the school’s role in supporting student wellbeing, this qualitative study explored the teachers’ experience of a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme, which focused on enhancing teachers’ emotional awareness within the context of everyday life. An implicit assumption in this approach is that student wellbeing can be nurtured (or undermined) through the everyday relations of teaching and learning in which emotional experiences are integrated. Focus groups with 22 primary and secondary school teachers in four schools in Norway were carried out, and a thematic analysis was conducted. The findings provide an illustration of how enhancing emotional awareness can strengthen professional competence in ways that can benefit the wellbeing of both teachers and students. The findings might inform a wider debate across national boundaries about the value of prioritising emotional awareness as an aspect of teachers’ CPD regarding their role in supporting student wellbeing.publishedVersio

The Lyngen Gabbro: the lower crust of an Ordovician Incipient-Arc

We present evidence for the origin of the Lyngen Gabbro of the Ordovician Lyngen Magmatic Complex in Troms, Northern Norway. The two magmatic suites of the Lyngen Gabbro strike parallel NNE-SSW, and have distinct magmatic signatures. We define these signatures by using major and trace-element analyses together with selected major- and trace-element mineral analyses and 143Nd/144Nd-isotope whole-rock analyses of gabbroic to tonalitic plutonic rocks from seven detailed cross-sections from this large gabbro-complex. The Western suite of the Lyngen Gabbro precipitated from magma that may have been derived from the same system as the associated volcanic rocks. The gabbros have high An-content (An>90) of their plagioclases relative to co-existing mafic minerals. Together with somewhat high ɛNd(t) values (+6), this implies that the parental magmas were hydrous tholeiites similar to those found in back arc basins today. The Eastern suite, on the other hand, consist of cumulates that were precipitated from melts resembling those of ultra-depleted high-Ca boninitic magmas found in fore-arcs. Extremely high-An plagioclases (An>95) co-exist with evolved mafic minerals and oxides, and the ɛNd(t) values are lower (+4) than in the Western suite. The Eastern suite has no volcanic counterpart, but dikes intersecting the suites have compositions that possibly represent its parental magma. The oceanic Rypdalen Shear Zone generally separates the two suites in the north, but several non-tectonic transitions from boninitic to tholeiitic signatures southwards advocate that the magmatism happened concurrently. The magmatic proximity between the suites, the hydrous magmatism and the absence of a silicic or calc-alkaline mature arc section, suggests that the Lyngen Gabbro formed in the Iapetus Ocean under conditions presently found in incipient arcs later emplaced as outer arc highs

Teachers’ sensemaking of physically active learning: A qualitative study of primary and secondary school teachers participating in a continuing professional development program in Norway

Physically active learning (PAL) has been advocated as a strategy for enhancing young people's movement and learning. To understand how PAL is accepted, adapted, and used by teachers, this study interviewed 16 teachers. The concept of sensemaking and thematic analysis was used in the study. The findings illustrate that teachers made sense of PAL through the lens of professional identity, using PAL to vary their teaching and include students of varying abilities in learning. We conclude that teachers may be more likely to interact with PAL if primacy is given to its educational purposes.publishedVersio

Enhancement of cranial nerves in Lyme neuroborreliosis: incidence and correlation with clinical symptoms and prognosis

Purpose Symptoms of cranial neuritis are a common presentation of Lyme neuroborreliosis (LNB). Imaging studies are scarce and report contradictory low prevalence of enhancement compared to clinical studies of cranial neuropathy. We hypothesized that MRI enhancement of cranial nerves in LNB is underreported, and aimed to assess the prevalence and clinical impact of cranial nerve enhancement in early LNB. Methods In this prospective, longitudinal cohort study, 69 patients with acute LNB were examined with MRI of the brain. Enhancement of cranial nerves III–XII was rated. MRI enhancement was correlated to clinical fndings of neuropathy in the acute phase and after 6 months. Results Thirty-nine of 69 patients (57%) had pathological cranial nerve enhancement. Facial and oculomotor nerves were most frequently afected. There was a strong correlation between enhancement in the distal internal auditory canal and parotid segments of the facial nerve and degree of facial palsy (gamma=0.95, p<.01, and gamma=0.93, p<.01), despite that 19/37 nerves with mild-moderate enhancement in the distal internal auditory canal segment showed no clinically evident palsy. Oculomotor and abducens nerve enhancement did not correlate with eye movement palsy (gamma=1.00 and 0.97, p=.31 for both). Sixteen of 17 patients with oculomotor and/or abducens nerve enhancement had no evident eye movement palsy. Conclusions MRI cranial nerve enhancement is common in LNB patients, but it can be clinically occult. Facial and oculomotor nerves are most often afected. Enhancement of the facial nerve distal internal auditory canal and parotid segments correlate with degree of facial palsy.publishedVersio

Revealing missing human protein isoforms based on Ab initio prediction, RNA-seq and proteomics

Biological and biomedical research relies on comprehensive understanding of protein-coding transcripts. However, the total number of human proteins is still unknown due to the prevalence of alternative splicing. In this paper, we detected 31,566 novel transcripts with coding potential by filtering our ab initio predictions with 50 RNA-seq datasets from diverse tissues/cell lines. PCR followed by MiSeq sequencing showed that at least 84.1% of these predicted novel splice sites could be validated. In contrast to known transcripts, the expression of these novel transcripts were highly tissue-specific. Based on these novel transcripts, at least 36 novel proteins were detected from shotgun proteomics data of 41 breast samples. We also showed L1 retrotransposons have a more significant impact on the origin of new transcripts/genes than previously thought. Furthermore, we found that alternative splicing is extraordinarily widespread for genes involved in specific biological functions like protein binding, nucleoside binding, neuron projection, membrane organization and cell adhesion. In the end, the total number of human transcripts with protein-coding potential was estimated to be at least 204,950.publishedVersio

The Effect of Smoking on Long-term Gray Matter Atrophy and Clinical Disability in Patients with Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis

The relationship between smoking, long-term brain atrophy, and clinical disability in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) is unclear. Here, we assessed long-term effects of smoking by evaluating MRI and clinical outcome measures after 10 years in smoking and nonsmoking patients with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS).publishedVersio

Energy performance contracting (EPC): a suitable mechanism for achieving energy savings in housing cooperatives? Results from a Norwegian pilot project

The barriers to energy savings in institutions and private homes are well known and include people’s lack of interest, awareness, knowledge and human and financial capacity. Experiences made in several countries show that EPC—energy performance contracting—may be used for overcoming many of these barriers. A typical EPC project is delivered by an energy service company (ESCO) and the contract is accompanied with a guarantee for energy savings. EPC is increasingly taken in use in the professional market (firms and the public sector), but is less common in the residential sector market. It has been suggested that there are several barriers for using EPC in the domestic sector such as the uncertainty involved in estimating forthcoming reductions in private consumption. In this paper, we present the results from a pilot project on the use of EPC in a housing cooperative in Oslo. The project was initiated and observed by the researchers. The research followed a transdisciplinary methodology in that it was conducted by both researcher and practitioner (co-authors) in close collaboration with members of the housing cooperative and the ESCOs, who also contributed to the interpretation of results. We document the process in terms of why the Board decided to join the EPC pilot, the call for offers from ESCOs who guaranteed that purchased annual energy would be reduced by one third, the responses to and negotiations of the offer from the ESCO who became contracted in the initial phase and up to the moment when the General Assembly finally decided to not invest in the proposed energy saving measures. We find that the residents not only had limited interest in energy savings but also lacked confidence in the EPC process. This contributed to the outcome. We discuss the findings in relation to the barriers to using EPC among housing cooperatives. We highlight the need for more knowledge about the client side for understanding how barriers may be overcome. Three specific recommendations for how EPC may successfully be employed among housing cooperatives are suggested as follows: (i) include refurbishment and not only energy savings in the EPC, (ii) identify the residents’ needs in an early phase and (iii) communicate the EPC principle to the residents throughout the process