9,691 research outputs found
Organosolv pretreatment of Sitka spruce wood: conversion of hemicelluloses to ethyl glycosides
A range of organosolv pretreatments, using ethanol:water mixtures with dilute sulphuric acid, were applied to Sitka spruce sawdust with the aim of generating useful co-products as well as improving saccharification yield. The most efficient of the pretreatment conditions, resulting in subsequent saccharification yields of up to 86%, converted a large part of the hemicellulose sugars to their ethyl glycosides as identified by GC/MS. These conditions also reduced conversion of pentoses to furfural, the ethyl glycosides being more stable to dehydration than the parent pentoses. Through comparison with the behaviour of model compounds under the same reaction conditions it was shown that the anomeric composition of the products was consistent with a predominant transglycosylation reaction mechanism, rather than hydrolysis followed by glycosylation. The ethyl glycosides have potential as intermediates in the sustainable production of high-value chemicals
"Distracters" do not always distract : Visual working memory for angry faces is enhanced by incidental emotional words.
Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Isolation of high quality lignin as a by-product from ammonia percolation pretreatment of poplar wood
A two-step process combining percolation-mode ammonia pretreatment of poplar sawdust with mild organosolv purification of the extracted lignin produced high quality, high purity lignin in up to 31% yield and 50% recovery. The uncondensed fraction of the isolated lignin was up to 34%, close to that the native lignin (40%). Less lignin was recovered after pretreatment in batch mode, apparently due to condensation during the longer residence time of the solubilised lignin at elevated temperature. The lignin recovery was directly correlated with its molecular weight and its nitrogen content. Low nitrogen incorporation, observed at high ammonia concentration, may be explained by limited homolytic cleavage of -O-4 bonds. Ammonia concentrations from 15% to 25% (w/w) gave similar results in terms of lignin structure, yield and recovery
Angry expressions strengthen the encoding and maintenance of face identity representations in visual working memory
This work was funded by a BBSRC grant (BB/G021538/2) to all authors.Peer reviewedPreprin
Demonstration of a multi-technique approach to assess glacial microbial populations in the field
The ability to perform microbial detection and characterization in-field at extreme environments, rather than on returned samples, has the potential to improve the efficiency, relevance and quantity of data from field campaigns. To date, few examples of this approach have been reported. Therefore, we demonstrate that the approach is feasible in subglacial environments by deploying four techniques for microbial detection: real-time polymerase chain reaction; microscopic fluorescence cell counts, adenosine triphosphate bioluminescence assay and recombinant Factor C assay (to detect lipopolysaccharide). Each technique was applied to 12 subglacial ice samples, 12 meltwater samples and two snow samples from Engabreen, Northern Norway. Using this multi-technique approach, the detected biomarker levels were as expected, being highest in debris-rich subglacial ice, moderate in glacial meltwater and low in clean ice (debris-poor) and snow. Principal component analysis was applied to the resulting dataset and could be performed in-field to rapidly aid the allocation of resources for further sample analysis. We anticipate that in-field data collection will allow for multiple rounds of sampling, analysis, interpretation and refinement within a single field campaign, resulting in the collection of larger and more appropriate datasets, ultimately with more efficient science return
Modification of Coulomb's law in closed spaces
We obtain a modified version of Coulomb's law in two- and three-dimensional
closed spaces. We demonstrate that in a closed space the total electric charge
must be zero. We also discuss the relation between total charge neutrality of a
isotropic and homogenous universe to whether or not its spatial sector is
closed.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure
Complementarity of Weak Lensing and Peculiar Velocity Measurements in Testing General Relativity
We explore the complementarity of weak lensing and galaxy peculiar velocity
measurements to better constrain modifications to General Relativity. We find
no evidence for deviations from GR on cosmological scales from a combination of
peculiar velocity measurements (for Luminous Red Galaxies in the Sloan Digital
Sky Survey) with weak lensing measurements (from the CFHT Legacy Survey). We
provide a Fisher error forecast for a Euclid-like space-based survey including
both lensing and peculiar velocity measurements, and show that the expected
constraints on modified gravity will be at least an order of magnitude better
than with present data, i.e. we will obtain 5% errors on the modified gravity
parametrization described here. We also present a model--independent method for
constraining modified gravity parameters using tomographic peculiar velocity
information, and apply this methodology to the present dataset.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure
In Memoriam: Daniel J. Meltzer
Sedan år 2006 har den syntetiskt framställda drogen spice existerat i Sverige, men först år 2008 blev drogen populär och tidningar började rikta uppmärksamhet mot den. Genom att drogen kan byta skepnad i uppbyggnaden kan den förbli laglig, därför kan egentligen namnet “spice” inte betraktas som ett enhetligt begrepp. Vårt syfte med denna studie blev att granska hur drogen spice beskrivs i tidningar och forskning. Även hur drogen betraktas gällande psykosociala och medicinska avseenden. Detta i förhållande till socialkonstruktivistiskt perspektiv. Den metod som vi valde att använda oss av i studien var kvantitativ innehållsanalys. Genom analys av 80 stycken svenska tidningsartiklar hämtade ur databasen mediearkivet, samt vetenskapliga artiklar och litteratur har vi besvarat våra frågeställningar. De resultat vi fick från analyser visade på att tidningar kan vara av betydande roll för ungdomars attityder. Tidningar kan utföra bland annat skrämselpropaganda för att upplysa och förhindra brukandet av spice, dessvärre visar resultatet en motsatt effekt. Forskning visar att bruk av spice kan påverka relationer och arbete negativt. Dessutom är några bieffekter av spice bröstsmärtor, vanföreställningar, självmordstankar och hjärtstopp
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