Human health impacts for renewable energy scenarios from the EnerGEO Platform of Integrated Assessment (PIA)

This article reports impact results from running the EnerGEO Platform of Integrated Assessment (PIA) related to human health for different scenarios in Europe. The scenarios were prepared within the EnerGEO project. The idea of this European project is to determine how low carbon scenarios, and in particular scenarios with a high share of renewable energy, affect concentrations of air pollutants and as a consequence affect human health. PM2.5 concentrations were estimated with the IIASA Greenhouse Gas and Air Pollution Interactions and Synergies (GAINS) model on a time horizon up to the year 2050 for different scenarios. We analyse here the estimation of the Loss of Life Expectancy due to PM2.5 concentrations for the Baseline scenario taken as a reference and the Maximum renewable power scenario

Visual hallucinations after resection of cerebral metastases: two patients with complex phantom images.

PURPOSE Complex visual hallucinations are rarely seen in neurooncology. They are commonly observed alongside psychotic symptoms in schizophrenia or dementia, in Parkinson's or Lewy-body disease, after opioid medications or anesthesia, and, in particular, they appear with visual impairments. METHODS Here we report two normal-sighted and mentally healthy patients with unusual visual hallucinations after the resection and irradiation of brain metastases, the main features of which were persistent colorful and meaningful images with hallucinatory perseveration. RESULTS These cases demonstrate the occurrence of complex visual hallucinations after resection of visual cortices as an effect of deafferentation, so-called visual release hallucinations or phantom images, similar to phantom pain after amputation of a limb. CONCLUSION This case serves to heighten awareness in the radiooncology practitioner of the occurrence of visual release hallucinations (Charles Bonnet syndrome) related to multidisciplinary treatment of brain metastases

An Instruction to Accelerate Software Caches

In this paper we propose an instruction to accelerate software caches. While DMAs are very efficient for predictable data sets that can be fetched before they are needed, they introduce a large latency overhead for computations with unpredictable access behavior. Software caches are advantageous when the data set is not predictable but exhibits locality. However, software caches also incur a large overhead. Because the main overhead is in the access function, we propose an instruction that replaces the look-up function of the software cache. This instruction is evaluated using the Multidimensional Software Cache and two multimedia kernels, GLCM and H.264 Motion Compensation. The results show that the proposed instruction accelerates the software cache access time by a factor of 2.6. This improvement translates to a 2.1 speedup for GLCM and 1.28 for MC, when compared with the IBM software cache

Substrate Photoswitching for Rate Enhancement of an Organocatalytic Cyclization Reaction

In this article, we report that applying in situ LED-NMR irradiation with appropriate wavelength resulted in the photoswitching of an α,β-unsaturated hydrazone C=N double bond configuration. This reaction was previously reported to be the first step in a chiral Brønsted acid-catalyzed cyclization reaction, where the minor but stable Z -isomer is the reactive intermediate. By enhancing the rate of the isomerization, we could show that the overall rate of the cyclization could be increased and followed directly by NMR kinetics. Exclusively light with a specific wavelength matching the isomerization process affected the cyclization. The light- and acid-mediated isomerization provide complementary pathways that can be exploited in synthetic applications to increase reaction rates of asymmetric transformations, especially in reactions requiring high loadings of elaborate chiral catalysts

Loss of Life Expectancy related to temporal evolution of PM2.5 considered within energy scenarios in Europe

International audiencePeople exposure to particulate matter can have various health effects as described in scientific publications in the area of observational epidemiology. This study estimates the Loss of Life Expectancy (LLE) related to PM2.5 concentrations corresponding to a selected baseline energy scenario derived from the GAINS model. Most often energy scenarios are defined as consistent pathways towards a long-term target defined by a set of criteria that describe a sustainable energy supply. This study accounts for the temporal evolution of PM2.5 concentrations along the time frame from 2005 till 2050. The analysis was carried out for 43 European countries with a spatial resolution of 50 x 50 km. LLE was considered over the whole life time of the population older than 30 years in year 2005. We propose an algorithm for the computation of LLE for population exposed to PM2.5 based on the approach recommended by the Task Force on Health described in IIASA's Report and accounting for the Pope exposure-risk parameter. The LLE computation is based on the difference between the life expectancy with no exposure to particulates and life expectancy with exposure to observed particulates. We considered in our algorithm the temporal evolutions of PM2.5 concentrations along the scenario, as well as population densities. LLE results were derived using different PM2.5 concentration profiles from 2005 to 2050. The first PM2.5 concentration profile corresponds to a constant PM2.5 concentration with values fixed to the 2005 situation. The second PM2.5 concentration profile corresponds to the temporal evolution of the selected energy scenario. LLE is then derived for both situations: the fixed PM2.5 concentrations case and the variable PM2.5 case as defined for the baseline scenario. LLE results are significantly different between the two cases with a decrease by half for most European countries. The Netherlands and Eastern Europe are the only regions where LLE exceed 300 days/person of life lost. Applying this new feature of temporal evolution of PM2.5 is of interest for assessing the potential impacts of scenarios accounting for the possible technical evolution of energy pathways. Results are provided on line in numerical form as well as in form of LLE maps

Human health impacts for Renewable Energy scenarios from the EnerGEO Platform of Integrated Assessment (PIA)

International audienceThis article reports impact results from running the EnerGEO Platform of Integrated Assessment (PIA) related to human health for different scenarios in Europe. The scenarios were prepared within the EnerGEO project. The idea of this European project is to determine how low carbon scenarios, and in particular scenarios with a high share of renewable energy, affect concentrations of air pollutants and as a consequence affect human health. PM2.5 concentrations were estimated with the IIASA Greenhouse Gas and Air Pollution Interactions and Synergies (GAINS) model on a time horizon up to the year 2050 for different scenarios. We analyse here the estimation of the Loss of Life Expectancy due to PM2.5 concentrations for the Baseline scenario taken as a reference and the Maximum renewable power scenario

What is the Role of Acid-Acid Interactions in Asymmetric Phosphoric Acid Organocatalysis? A Detailed Mechanistic Study using Interlocked and Non-Interlocked Catalysts

Organocatalysis has revolutionized asymmetric synthesis. However, the supramolecular interactions of organocatalysts in solution are often neglected, although the formation of catalyst aggregates can have a strong impact on the catalytic reaction. For phosphoric acid based organocatalysts, we have now established that catalyst-catalyst interactions can be suppressed by using macrocyclic catalysts, which react predominantly in a monomeric fashion, while they can be favored by integration into a bifunctional catenane, which react mainly as phosphoric acid dimers. For acyclic phosphoric acids, we found a strongly concentration dependent behavior, involving both monomeric and dimeric catalytic pathways. Based on a detailed experimental analysis, DFT-calculations and a direct NMR-based observation of the catalyst aggregates, we could demonstrate that intermolecular acid-acid interactions have a drastic influence on the reaction rate and stereoselectivity of the asymmetric transfer-hydrogenation catalyzed by chiral phosphoric acids