Synergistic Sintering of Lignite Fly Ash and Steelmaking Residues towards Sustainable Compacted Ceramics

The development of value-added ceramic materials deriving only from industrial by-products is particularly interesting from technological, economic, and environmental point of views. In this work, the synergistic sintering of ternary and binary mixtures of fly ash, steelmaking electric arc furnace dust, and ladle furnace slag for the synthesis of compacted ceramics is reported. The sintered specimens’ microstructure and mineralogical composition were characterized by SEM-EDS and XRD, respectively. Moreover, the shrinkage, apparent density, water absorption, and Vickers microhardness (HV) were investigated at different sintering temperatures and raw material compositions. The characterization of the sintered compacts revealed the successful consolidation of the ceramic microstructures. According to the experimental findings, the ceramics obtained from fly ash/steel dust mixtures exhibited enhanced properties compared to the other mixtures tested. Moreover, the processing temperature affected the final properties of the produced ceramics. Specifically, a 407% HV increase for EAFD and a 2221% increase for the FA-EAFD mixture were recorded, by increasing the sintering temperature from 1050 to 1150°C. Likewise, a 972% shrinkage increase for EAFD and a 577% shrinkage increase for the FA-EAFD mixture were recorded, by increasing the sintering temperature from 1050 to 1150°C. The research results aim at shedding more light on the development of sustainable sintered ceramics from secondary industrial resources towards circular economy

Vitamin C supplement use may protect against gallstones: an observational study on a randomly selected population

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Animal experiments have shown a protective effect of vitamin C on the formation of gallstones. Few data in humans suggest an association between reduced vitamin C intake and increased prevalence of gallstone disease. The aim of this study was to assess the possible association of regular vitamin C supplementation with gallstone prevalence.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>An observational, population-based study of 2129 subjects aged 18-65 years randomly selected from the general population in southern Germany was conducted. Abdominal ultrasound examination, completion of a standardized questionnaire, compilation of anthropometric data and blood tests were used. Data were collected in November and December 2002. Data analysis was conducted between December 2005 and January 2006.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Prevalence of gallstones in the study population was 7.8% (167/2129). Subjects reporting vitamin C supplementation showed a prevalence of 4.7% (11/232), whereas in subjects not reporting regular vitamin C supplementation, the prevalence was 8.2% (156/1897). Female gender, hereditary predisposition, increasing age and body-mass index (BMI) were associated with increased prevalence of gallstones. Logistic regression with backward elimination adjusted for these factors showed reduced gallstone prevalence for vitamin C supplementation (odds ratio, OR 0.34; 95% confidence interval, CI 0.14 to 0.81; P = 0.01), increased physical activity (OR 0.62; 95% CI, 0.42 to 0.94; P = 0.02), and higher total cholesterol (OR 0.65; 95% CI, 0.52 to 0.79; P < 0.001).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Regular vitamin C supplementation and, to a lesser extent, increased physical activity and total cholesterol levels are associated with a reduced prevalence of gallstones. Regular vitamin C supplementation might exert a protective effect on the development of gallstones.</p

Global patient outcomes after elective surgery: prospective cohort study in 27 low-, middle- and high-income countries.

BACKGROUND: As global initiatives increase patient access to surgical treatments, there remains a need to understand the adverse effects of surgery and define appropriate levels of perioperative care. METHODS: We designed a prospective international 7-day cohort study of outcomes following elective adult inpatient surgery in 27 countries. The primary outcome was in-hospital complications. Secondary outcomes were death following a complication (failure to rescue) and death in hospital. Process measures were admission to critical care immediately after surgery or to treat a complication and duration of hospital stay. A single definition of critical care was used for all countries. RESULTS: A total of 474 hospitals in 19 high-, 7 middle- and 1 low-income country were included in the primary analysis. Data included 44 814 patients with a median hospital stay of 4 (range 2-7) days. A total of 7508 patients (16.8%) developed one or more postoperative complication and 207 died (0.5%). The overall mortality among patients who developed complications was 2.8%. Mortality following complications ranged from 2.4% for pulmonary embolism to 43.9% for cardiac arrest. A total of 4360 (9.7%) patients were admitted to a critical care unit as routine immediately after surgery, of whom 2198 (50.4%) developed a complication, with 105 (2.4%) deaths. A total of 1233 patients (16.4%) were admitted to a critical care unit to treat complications, with 119 (9.7%) deaths. Despite lower baseline risk, outcomes were similar in low- and middle-income compared with high-income countries. CONCLUSIONS: Poor patient outcomes are common after inpatient surgery. Global initiatives to increase access to surgical treatments should also address the need for safe perioperative care. STUDY REGISTRATION: ISRCTN5181700

Data &amp; Scripts for Katsika et al. (2022). The influence of case and word order in children and adults’ processing of relative clauses in Greek

Data and scripts for the reported analysis in our paper "The Influence of Case and Word Order in Child and Adult Processing of Relative Clauses in Greek

The role of constituent order and level of embedding in cross-linguistic structural priming

In two cross-linguistic priming experiments with native German speakers of L2 English, we investigated the role of constituent order and level of embedding in cross-linguistic structural priming. In both experiments, significant priming effects emerged only if prime and target were similar with regard to constituent order and also situated on the same level of embedding. We discuss our results on the basis of two current theoretical accounts of cross-linguistic priming, and conclude that neither an account based on combinatorial nodes nor an account assuming that constituent order is directly responsible for the priming effect can fully explain our data pattern. We suggest an account that explains cross-linguistic priming through a hierarchical tree representation. This representation is computed during processing of the prime, and can influence the formulation of a target sentence only when the structural features specified in it are grammatically correct in the target sentence.</jats:p

The effect of sintering processes of lignite calcareous ashes on the production of ceramics

Abstract Two-step sintering (TSS) and microwave (MW) heating process are two new techniques, promising approaches to obtain effectively densified ceramics. TSS is characterized by the absence of the final stage of grain growth occurring upon the conventional sintering and by the development of nanograin microstructure. MW energy offers many advantages for effective and rapid, thus eco-friendlier and economic sintering of materials over conventional processing. This process, by its selective and volumetric heating, can reduce the sintering time considerably, enhance the solidification efficiency and improve physical and mechanical properties. In the present research, compacts prepared from lignite combustion Class-C ashes originated from West Macedonia -Greece were sintered employing the aforementioned alternative sintering procedures and compared to similar specimens that were conventionally sintered. The ceramic microstructures obtained were characterized by means of XRD and SEM-EDX analysis, as well as by density measurements conducted using the Archimedes method. The effectiveness of the solidification process was thoroughly studied and is discussed here, and the specific microstructural features attained are compared between each other and evaluated in relation to the sintering method applied. The results show that the valorization of lignite calcareous ashes into ceramic materials is feasible through different sintering techniques

Salivary inflammatory markers in tension type headache and migraine: the SalHead cohort study

Objective: To investigate the possible association between salivary CRP, IL-1β, and IL-6 levels, depression/anxiety and migraine, and tension type headache (TTH) in saliva of these patients. Method: A longitudinal prospective study was conducted on 30 migraineurs, 30 TTH patients, and 30 age-matched healthy controls. Anxiety and depression were measured by using the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A), and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Salivary IL-6, IL-1β, and CRP were collected in distinct time points as A: headache-free period, B: during headache, C: 1 day after headache attack, and measured by using ELISA kits. Results: No significant differences were found in time variation of CRP, IL-1β, and IL-6 levels between migraine and TTH (p &gt; 0.05). IL1-β had the highest discriminative value (area under the curve = 0.924, p value &lt; 0.001), and then CRP (area under the curve = 0.763, p value &lt; 0.001) and IL-6 (area under the curve = 0.537, p value = 0.58). CRP and IL-6 were negatively correlated with HAM-A and BDI scores. Conclusion: IL1-β had the highest discriminative value between headache patients and controls compared with CRP and IL-6. CRP and IL-6 were correlated with lower symptom scores of anxiety and depression prior or immediately after the headache period in patients groups. © 2019, Fondazione Società Italiana di Neurologia