Scrap, carbon and cost savings from the adoption of flexible nested blanking

Steel accounts for 6% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions, most of which arises during steelmaking rather than downstream manufacturing. While improving efficiency in steelmaking has received a great deal of attention, improving material yield downstream can have a substantial impact and has received comparatively less attention. In this paper, we explore the conditions required for manufacturers to switch to a more materially efficient process, reducing demand for steel and thus reducing emissions without reducing the supply of goods to consumers. Furthermore, we present an alternative processing route where parts can be cut in flexible arrangements to take advantage of optimal nesting across multiple part geometries. For the first time, we determine the potential savings that flexible nested blanking of parts could achieve by calculating the potential for grouping orders with tolerably-similar thickness, strengths, ductility and corrosion-resistance. We found that 1,080 kt of CO2 and 710 kt of steel worth € 430M could be saved each year if this scheme was adopted across all European flat steel mills serving the automotive sector

B-Lynch Suture-Uterine Artery Ligation in Severe Postpartum Haemorrhage: First Experience at a New Tertiary Institution in Nigeria

Postpartum haemorrhage is a major contributor to maternal morbidity and mortality. Numerous medical and surgical methods have been used to arrest bleeding but none has been uniformly successful. Experience withcombined B-Lynch suture(Brace suture) and bilateral uterine artery  devascularisation procedure is limited in southwestern Nigeria as there is dearth of data on it and most times (especially in our center) hysterectomy is done to secure haemostasis in severe postpartum haemorrhage which could as well, in well selected cases, respond to the procedures being described. A combined B-Lynch suture and bilateral ligation of the uterine vessels(the first experience in the centre of study) was done in the case reported below which was successful and effective with no complications. This is thus highly recommended as alternative to obstetric hysterectomy especially in well selected primipara. (B-Lynch, uterine artery ligation, postpartum haemorrhage, Nigeria

Spectrum from the warped compactifications with the de Sitter universe

We discuss the spectrum of the tensor metric perturbations and the stability of warped compactifications with the de Sitter spacetime in the higher-dimensional gravity. The spacetime structure is given in terms of the warped product of the non-compact direction, the spherical internal dimensions and the four-dimensional de Sitter spacetime. To realize a finite bulk volume, we construct the brane world model, using the cut-copy-paste method. Then, we compactify the spherical directions on the brane. In any case, we show the existence of the massless zero mode and the mass gap of it with massive Kaluza-Klein modes. Although the brane involves the spherical dimensions, no light massive mode is excited. We also investigate the scalar perturbations, and show that the model is unstable due to the existence of a tachyonic bound state, which seems to have the universal negative mass square, irrespective of the number of spacetime dimensions.Comment: Journal version (JHEP

Rats distinguish between absence of events and lack of evidence in contingency learning.

The goal of three experiments was to study whether rats are aware of the difference between absence of events and lack of evidence. We used a Pavlovian extinction paradigm in which lights consistently signaling sucrose were suddenly paired with the absence of sucrose. The crucial manipulation involved the absent outcomes in the extinction phase. Whereas in the Cover conditions, access to the drinking receptacle was blocked by a metal plate, in the No Cover conditions, the drinking receptacle was accessible. The Test phase showed that in the Cover conditions, the measured expectancies of sucrose were clearly at a higher level than in the No Cover conditions. We compare two competing theories potentially explaining the findings. A cognitive theory interprets the observed effect as evidence that the rats were able to understand that the cover blocked informational access to the outcome information, and therefore the changed learning input did not necessarily signify a change of the underlying contingency in the world. An alternative associationist account, renewal theory, might instead explain the relative sparing of extinction in the Cover condition as a consequence of context change. We discuss the merits of both theories as accounts of our data and conclude that the cognitive explanation is in this case preferred

Nrf2 impacts cellular bioenergetics by controlling substrate availability for mitochondrial respiration

Transcription factor Nrf2 and its repressor Keap1 regulate a network of cytoprotective genes involving more than 1% of the genome, their best known targets being drug-metabolizing and antioxidant genes. Here we demonstrate a novel role for this pathway in directly regulating mitochondrial bioenergetics in murine neurons and embryonic fibroblasts. Loss of Nrf2 leads to mitochondrial depolarisation, decreased ATP levels and impaired respiration, whereas genetic activation of Nrf2 increases the mitochondrial membrane potential and ATP levels, the rate of respiration and the efficiency of oxidative phosphorylation. We further show that Nrf2-deficient cells have increased production of ATP in glycolysis, which is then used by the F1Fo-ATPase for maintenance of the mitochondrial membrane potential. While the levels and in vitro activities of the respiratory complexes are unaffected by Nrf2 deletion, their activities in isolated mitochondria and intact live cells are substantially impaired. In addition, the rate of regeneration of NADH after inhibition of respiration is much slower in Nrf2-knockout cells than in their wild-type counterparts. Taken together, these results show that Nrf2 directly regulates cellular energy metabolism through modulating the availability of substrates for mitochondrial respiration. Our findings highlight the importance of efficient energy metabolism in Nrf2-mediated cytoprotection

Automated mass spectrometric analysis of urinary and plasma serotonin

Serotonin emerges as crucial neurotransmitter and hormone in a growing number of different physiologic processes. Besides extensive serotonin production previously noted in patients with metastatic carcinoid tumors, serotonin now is implicated in liver cell regeneration and bone formation. The aim was to develop a rapid, sensitive, and highly selective automated on-line solid-phase extraction method coupled to high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (XLC-MS/MS) to quantify low serotonin concentrations in matrices such as platelet-poor plasma and urine. Fifty microliters plasma or 2.5 μL urine equivalent were pre-purified by automated on-line solid-phase extraction, using weak cation exchange. Chromatography of serotonin and its deuterated internal standard was performed with hydrophilic interaction chromatography. Mass spectrometric detection was operated in multiple reaction monitoring mode using a quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer with positive electrospray ionization. Serotonin concentrations were determined in platelet-poor plasma of metastatic carcinoid patients (n = 23) and healthy controls (n = 22). Urinary reference intervals were set by analyzing 24-h urine collections of 120 healthy subjects. Total run-time was 6 min. Intra- and inter-assay analytical variation were <10%. Linearity in the 0–7300 μmol/L calibration range was excellent (R2 > 0.99). Quantification limits were 30 and 0.9 nmol/L in urine and plasma, respectively. Platelet-poor serotonin concentrations in metastatic carcinoid patients were significantly higher than in controls. The urinary reference interval was 10–78 μmol/mol creatinine. Serotonin analysis with sensitive and specific XLC-MS/MS overcomes limitations of conventional HPLC. This enables accurate quantification of serotonin for both routine diagnostic procedures and research in serotonin-related disorders

Causality in AdS/CFT and Lovelock theory

We explore the constraints imposed on higher curvature corrections of the Lovelock type due to causality restrictions in the boundary of asymptotically AdS space-time. In the framework of AdS/CFT, this is related to positivity of the energy constraints that arise in conformal collider physics. We present explicit analytic results that fully address these issues for cubic Lovelock gravity in arbitrary dimensions and give the formal analytic results that comprehend general Lovelock theory. The computations can be performed in two ways, both by considering a thermal setup in a black hole background and by studying the scattering of gravitons with a shock wave in AdS. We show that both computations coincide in Lovelock theory. The different helicities, as expected, provide the boundaries defining the region of allowed couplings. We generalize these results to arbitrary higher dimensions and discuss their consequences on the shear viscosity to energy density ratio of CFT plasmas, the possible existence of Boulware-Deser instabilities in Lovelock theory and the extent to which the AdS/CFT correspondence might be valid for arbitrary dimensions.Comment: 35 pages, 20 figures; v2: minor amendments and clarifications include