ZnO/ionic liquid catalyzed biodiesel production from renewable and waste lipids as feedstocks

A new protocol for biodiesel production is proposed, based on a binary ZnO/TBAI (TBAI = tetrabutylammonium iodide) catalytic system. Zinc oxide acts as a heterogeneous, bifunctional Lewis acid/base catalyst, while TBAI plays the role of phase transfer agent. Being composed by the bulk form powders, the whole catalyst system proved to be easy to use, without requiring nano-structuration or tedious and costly preparation or pre-activation procedures. In addition, due to the amphoteric properties of ZnO, the catalyst can simultaneously promote transesterification and esterification processes, thus becoming applicable to common vegetable oils (e.g., soybean, jatropha, linseed, etc.) and animal fats (lard and fish oil), but also to waste lipids such as cooking oils (WCOs), highly acidic lipids from oil industry processing, and lipid fractions of municipal sewage sludge. Reusability of the catalyst system together with kinetic (Ea) and thermodynamic parameters of activation (∆G‡ and ∆H‡) are also studied for transesterification reaction

AMPK in the central nervous system: physiological roles and pathological implications

5′ AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is considered the master metabolic regulator in all eukaryotes, as it maintains cellular energy homeostasis in a variety of tissues, including the brain. In humans, alterations in AMPK activity can lead to a wide spectrum of metabolic disorders. The relevance of this protein kinase in the pathogenesis of diabetes and metabolic syndrome is now well established. On the contrary, correlations between AMPK and brain physiopathology are still poorly characterized. The aim of this review is to summarize and discuss the current knowledge about the prospective involvement of AMPK in the onset and the progression of different neurological diseases

Shaking Scenarios from Multiple Source Models Shed Light on the 8 September 1905 Mw 7 Calabria Earthquake (Southern Italy)

4noThe earthquake (Mw 7) that struck western Calabria (southern Italy) on 8 September 1905 profoundly struck a broad region, causing 557 deaths, injuring more than 2000 people, and leaving about 300,000 people homeless. Historical documents also reported a tsunami, although not devastating, for which effects were observed both along the coast and offshore. For all the damage it caused, this event was much studied but not fully explained. Literature source models for the 1905 earthquake are numerous and diverse, in fault geometry, location, and even associated magnitude. They also differ in nature, because these solutions are either field-based or derived from tsunami modeling and macroseismic data inversion. Above all, few or none of the previously published source models appear to be fully compatible with the damage pattern caused by this earthquake. To contribute to the identification of the seismogenic source of this destructive event, we computed a series of ground-shaking scenarios based on the different fault-source models that various authors associated with this event. The only documented data available that are suitable for our comparative purposes are the macroseismic intensities associated with localities affected by the event. Our results show that shaking scenarios for two out of seven literature source models are compatible with the damage distribution caused by the 1905 earthquake. The different parameters and boundary conditions constraining these two solutions suggest that either seismogenic source should include further complexities. Alternatively, because these two sources are antithetic and partially form a graben, they might have kinematically interacted, if passively, on 8 September 1905. Also, our critical analysis attempts to take site effects into account, at least qualitatively, allowing a more robust evaluation of damage distribution against numerical models.openembargoed_20160430Sandron, Denis; Loreto, Maria Filomena; Fracassi, Umberto; Tiberi, LaraSandron, Denis; Loreto, Maria Filomena; Fracassi, Umberto; Tiberi, Lar

Thermally driven circulation in a region of complex topography: comparison of wind-profiling radar measurements and MM5 numerical predictions

The diurnal variation of regional wind patterns in the complex terrain of Central Italy was investigated for summer fair-weather conditions and winter time periods using a radar wind profiler. The profiler is located on a site where interaction between the complex topography and land-surface produces a variety of thermally and dynamically driven wind systems. The observational data set, collected for a period of one year, was used first to describe the diurnal evolution of thermal driven winds, second to validate the Mesoscale Model 5 (MM5) that is a three-dimensional numerical model. This type of analysis was focused on the near-surface wind observation, since thermally driven winds occur in the lower atmosphere. According to the valley wind theory expectations, the site – located on the left sidewall of the valley (looking up valley) – experiences a clockwise turning with time. Same characteristics in the behavior were established in both the experimental and numerical results. <P style="line-height: 20px;"> Because the thermally driven flows can have some depth and may be influenced mainly by model errors, as a third step the analysis focuses on a subset of cases to explore four different MM5 Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) parameterizations. The reason is to test how the results are sensitive to the selected PBL parameterization, and to identify the better parameterization if it is possible. For this purpose we analysed the MM5 output for the whole PBL levels. The chosen PBL parameterizations are: 1) Gayno-Seaman; 2) Medium-Range Forecast; 3) Mellor-Yamada scheme as used in the ETA model; and 4) Blackadar