A magnetically separable SO 4 /Fe-Al-TiO 2 solid acid catalyst for biodiesel production from waste cooking oil

A novel magnetic SO4/Fe-Al-TiO2 solid acid catalyst was synthesized for biodiesel production via the (trans)esterification of waste cooking oil (WCO). The nanocomposite catalyst was prepared by the sequential functionalisation of commercial rutile/anatase mixed phase TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) with alumina as a buffer layer, and subsequently hematite to impart magnetic character, prior to sulfation with chlorosulfonic acid to introduce Brønsted acidity. XRD showed that the SO4/Fe-Al-TiO2 catalyst comprised titania (rutile and anatase phases), aluminium sulphate, and hematite nanoparticles, while electron microscopy revealed the layer-by-layer assembly of these components within the SO4/Fe-Al-TiO2 catalyst. FTIR confirmed the presence of surface sulphate groups SO42- and S2O72-/S3O102-, creating a predominantly Brønsted acid catalyst with high acid loading. The catalyst achieved 96 % fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) yield from WCO after 2.5 h of reaction at 90 °C, using 3 wt% of the magnetic catalyst, and a methanol:oil molar ratio of 10:1. SO4/Fe-Al-TiO2 was also effective for feedstocks containing up to 20 wt% of free fatty acid (FFA), and showed excellent stability for WCO (trans)esterification over 10 recycles

Outsourcing som pausknapp

Syfte: Att undersöka huruvida outsourcing används som en pausknapp för att skjuta upp problemet och i framtiden ta ställning till funktionens vara eller icke vara inom företaget samt studera vad som görs under tiden funktionen är outsourcad och om detta möjliggör insourcing för företaget. Slutsats:Ett mönster infinnes i de tidiga stadierna av outsourcing. Ett uttalat beslut eller planering för insourcing är sällsynt. Företagen använder olika tillvägagångssätt angående förberedande för en eventuell insourcing

Monitoring student activities with smartwatches: On the academic performance enhancement

Motivated by the importance of studying the relationship between habits of students and their academic performance, daily activities of undergraduate participants have been tracked with smartwatches and smartphones. Smartwatches collect data together with an Android application that interacts with the users who provide the labeling of their own activities. The tracked activities include eating, running, sleeping, classroom-session, exam, job, homework, transportation, watching TV-Series, and reading. The collected data were stored in a server for activity recognition with supervised machine learning algorithms. The methodology for the concept proof includes the extraction of features with the discrete wavelet transform from gyroscope and accelerometer signals to improve the classification accuracy. The results of activity recognition with Random Forest were satisfactory (86.9%) and support the relationship between smartwatch sensor signals and daily-living activities of students which opens the possibility for developing future experiments with automatic activity-labeling, and so forth to facilitate activity pattern recognition to propose a recommendationsystem to enhance the academic performance of each student

A response to Yu et al. "A forward-backward fragment assembling algorithm for the identification of genomic amplification and deletion breakpoints using high-density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array", BMC Bioinformatics 2007, 8: 145

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Yu et al. (BMC Bioinformatics 2007,8: 145+) have recently compared the performance of several methods for the detection of genomic amplification and deletion breakpoints using data from high-density single nucleotide polymorphism arrays. One of the methods compared is our non-homogenous Hidden Markov Model approach. Our approach uses Markov Chain Monte Carlo for inference, but Yu et al. ran the sampler for a severely insufficient number of iterations for a Markov Chain Monte Carlo-based method. Moreover, they did not use the appropriate reference level for the non-altered state.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We rerun the analysis in Yu et al. using appropriate settings for both the Markov Chain Monte Carlo iterations and the reference level. Additionally, to show how easy it is to obtain answers to additional specific questions, we have added a new analysis targeted specifically to the detection of breakpoints.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The reanalysis shows that the performance of our method is comparable to that of the other methods analyzed. In addition, we can provide probabilities of a given spot being a breakpoint, something unique among the methods examined.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods require using a sufficient number of iterations before they can be assumed to yield samples from the distribution of interest. Running our method with too small a number of iterations cannot be representative of its performance. Moreover, our analysis shows how our original approach can be easily adapted to answer specific additional questions (e.g., identify edges).</p

Chlorambucil targets BRCA1/2-deficient tumours and counteracts PARP inhibitor resistance.

Due to compromised homologous recombination (HR) repair, BRCA1- and BRCA2-mutated tumours accumulate DNA damage and genomic rearrangements conducive of tumour progression. To identify drugs that target specifically BRCA2-deficient cells, we screened a chemical library containing compounds in clinical use. The top hit was chlorambucil, a bifunctional alkylating agent used for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). We establish that chlorambucil is specifically toxic to BRCA1/2-deficient cells, including olaparib-resistant and cisplatin-resistant ones, suggesting the potential clinical use of chlorambucil against disease which has become resistant to these drugs. Additionally, chlorambucil eradicates BRCA2-deficient xenografts and inhibits growth of olaparib-resistant patient-derived tumour xenografts (PDTXs). We demonstrate that chlorambucil inflicts replication-associated DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), similarly to cisplatin, and we identify ATR, FANCD2 and the SNM1A nuclease as determinants of sensitivity to both drugs. Importantly, chlorambucil is substantially less toxic to normal cells and tissues in vitro and in vivo relative to cisplatin. Because chlorambucil and cisplatin are equally effective inhibitors of BRCA2-compromised tumours, our results indicate that chlorambucil has a higher therapeutic index than cisplatin in targeting BRCA-deficient tumours.This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska‐Curie grant agreement No. 722729. Research in M.T. laboratory is supported by Cancer Research UK, Medical Research Council and University of Oxford

waviCGH: a web application for the analysis and visualization of genomic copy number alterations

waviCGH is a versatile web server for the analysis and comparison of genomic copy number alterations in multiple samples from any species. waviCGH processes data generated by high density SNP-arrays, array-CGH or copy-number calls generated by any technique. waviCGH includes methods for pre-processing of the data, segmentation, calling of gains and losses, and minimal common regions determination over a set of experiments. The server is a user-friendly interface to the analytical methods, with emphasis on results visualization in a genomic context. Analysis tools are introduced to the user as the different steps to follow in an experimental protocol. All the analysis steps generate high quality images and tables ready to be imported into spreadsheet programs. Additionally, for human, mouse and rat, altered regions are represented in a biological context by mapping them into chromosomes in an integrated cytogenetic browser. waviCGH is available at http://wavi.bioinfo.cnio.es

Molecular Effects of Doxycycline Treatment on Pterygium as Revealed by Massive Transcriptome Sequencing

Pterygium is a lesion of the eye surface which involves cell proliferation, migration, angiogenesis, fibrosis, and extracellular matrix remodelling. Surgery is the only approved method to treat this disorder, but high recurrence rates are common. Recently, it has been shown in a mouse model that treatment with doxycycline resulted in reduction of the pterygium lesions. Here we study the mechanism(s) of action by which doxycycline achieves these results, using massive sequencing techniques. Surgically removed pterygia from 10 consecutive patients were set in short term culture and exposed to 0 (control), 50, 200, and 500 µg/ml doxycycline for 24 h, their mRNA was purified, reverse transcribed and sequenced through Illumina’s massive sequencing protocols. Acquired data were subjected to quantile normalization and analyzed using cytoscape plugin software to explore the pathways involved. False discovery rate (FDR) methods were used to identify 332 genes which modified their expression in a dose-dependent manner upon exposure to doxycycline. The more represented cellular pathways included all mitochondrial genes, the endoplasmic reticulum stress response, integrins and extracellular matrix components, and growth factors. A high correlation was obtained when comparing ultrasequencing data with qRT-PCR and ELISA results

Measurement of the Lifetime Difference Between B_s Mass Eigenstates

We present measurements of the lifetimes and polarization amplitudes for B_s --> J/psi phi and B_d --> J/psi K*0 decays. Lifetimes of the heavy (H) and light (L) mass eigenstates in the B_s system are separately measured for the first time by determining the relative contributions of amplitudes with definite CP as a function of the decay time. Using 203 +/- 15 B_s decays, we obtain tau_L = (1.05 +{0.16}/-{0.13} +/- 0.02) ps and tau_H = (2.07 +{0.58}/-{0.46} +/- 0.03) ps. Expressed in terms of the difference DeltaGamma_s and average Gamma_s, of the decay rates of the two eigenstates, the results are DeltaGamma_s/Gamma_s = (65 +{25}/-{33} +/- 1)%, and DeltaGamma_s = (0.47 +{0.19}/-{0.24} +/- 0.01) inverse ps.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables; as published in Physical Review Letters on 16 March 2005; revisions are for length and typesetting only, no changes in results or conclusion