Current status and future development of solvent-based carbon capture

Solvent-based carbon capture is the most commercially-ready technology for economically and sustainably reaching carbon emission reduction targets in the power sector. Globally, the technology has been deployed to deal with flue gases from large scale power plants and different carbon-intensive industries. The success of the technology is due to significant R&D activities on the process development and decades of industrial experience on acid gas removal processes from gaseous mixtures. In this paper, current status of PCC based on chemical absorption—commercial deployment and demonstration projects, analysis of different solvents and process configurations—is reviewed. Although some successes have been recorded in developing this technology, its commercialization has been generally slow as evidenced in the cancellation of high profile projects across the world. This is partly due to the huge cost burden of the technology and unpredictable government policies. Different research directions, namely new process development involving process intensification, new solvent development and a combination of both, are discussed in this paper as possible pathways for reducing the huge cost of the technology

Modern Clinical Research on LSD

All modern clinical studies using the classic hallucinogen lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) in healthy subjects or patients in the last 25 years are reviewed herein. There were five recent studies in healthy participants and one in patients. In a controlled setting, LSD acutely induced bliss, audiovisual synesthesia, altered meaning of perceptions, derealization, depersonalization, and mystical experiences. These subjective effects of LSD were mediated by the 5-HT2A receptor. LSD increased feelings of closeness to others, openness, trust, and suggestibility. LSD impaired the recognition of sad and fearful faces, reduced left amygdala reactivity to fearful faces, and enhanced emotional empathy. LSD increased the emotional response to music and the meaning of music. LSD acutely produced deficits in sensorimotor gating, similar to observations in schizophrenia. LSD had weak autonomic stimulant effects and elevated plasma cortisol, prolactin, and oxytocin levels. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance studies showed that LSD acutely reduced the integrity of functional brain networks and increased connectivity between networks that normally are more dissociated. LSD increased functional thalamocortical connectivity and functional connectivity of the primary visual cortex with other brain areas. The latter effect was correlated with subjective hallucinations. LSD acutely induced global increases in brain entropy that were associated with greater trait openness 14 days later. In patients with anxiety associated with life-threatening disease, anxiety was reduced for 2 months after two doses of LSD. In medical settings, no complications of LSD administration were observed. These data should contribute to further investigations of the therapeutic potential of LSD in psychiatry

Mood and cognition in healthy older European adults: the Zenith study

YesBackground: The study aim was to determine if state and trait intra-individual measures of everyday affect predict cognitive functioning in healthy older community dwelling European adults (n = 387), aged 55-87 years. Methods: Participants were recruited from centres in France, Italy and Northern Ireland. Trait level and variability in positive and negative affect (PA and NA) were assessed using self-administered PANAS scales, four times a day for four days. State mood was assessed by one PANAS scale prior to assessment of recognition memory, spatial working memory, reaction time and sustained attention using the CANTAB computerized test battery. Results: A series of hierarchical regression analyses were carried out, one for each measure of cognitive function as the dependent variable, and socio-demographic variables (age, sex and social class), state and trait mood measures as the predictors. State PA and NA were both predictive of spatial working memory prior to looking at the contribution of trait mood. Trait PA and its variability were predictive of sustained attention. In the final step of the regression analyses, trait PA variability predicted greater sustained attention, whereas state NA predicted fewer spatial working memory errors, accounting for a very small percentage of the variance (1-2%) in the respective tests. Conclusion: Moods, by and large, have a small transient effect on cognition in this older sample

Avaliação da qualidade de vida de pacientes com trauma craniencefálico

A percepção de qualidade de vida relacionada à saúde de um paciente com doença crônica, quando avaliada, pode refletir quanto os efeitos de uma doença ou tratamento exercem sobre a vida diária, o nível de satisfação e bem-estar. O objetivo aqui foi avaliar a qualidade de vida de indivíduos com trauma craniencefálico (TCE), por meio do instrumento WHOQOL-bref, e verificar possíveis associações com características sociodemográficas e clínicas dos pacientes. Participaram 120 pacientes com TCE que concluíram um programa de reabilitação na Associação de Assistência à Criança Deficiente. Os dados foram tratados estatisticamente. O escore médio em todos os domínios e o escore global foram superiores a 60 pontos (em escala de 0 a 100). Correlações moderadas foram encontradas entre qualidade de vida global e os níveis educacional (pThe assessment of a patient's perception of health-related quality of life (QOL) may reflect the effects of a disease or treatment on the patient's daily life satisfaction and well-being. The purpose of this study was to evaluate self-reported quality of life in traumatic brain injury patients, by using the WHOQOL-bref, and search for correlations between questionnaire scores and patients' social-demographic and clinic characteristics. Participants were 120 patients with brain damage who finished a rehabilitation program at AACD (Association for Assistance to Disabled Children). Data were statistically analysed. Mean scores at all WHOQOL-bref domains and mean global scores were above 60 points (0-to-100 scale). Moderate correlations were found between global QOL and educational level (p<0.05) and social adjustment (p<0.01). Patients who were able to walk, with higher income and educational level, and better socially adjusted (studying or working) reported a better quality of life

An Automatic Correction Method for the Heel Effect in Digitized Mammography Images

The most significant radiation field nonuniformity is the well-known Heel effect. This nonuniform beam effect has a negative influence on the results of computer-aided diagnosis of mammograms, which is frequently used for early cancer detection. This paper presents a method to correct all pixels in the mammography image according to the excess or lack on radiation to which these have been submitted as a result of the this effect. The current simulation method calculates the intensities at all points of the image plane. In the simulated image, the percentage of radiation received by all the points takes the center of the field as reference. In the digitized mammography, the percentages of the optical density of all the pixels of the analyzed image are also calculated. The Heel effect causes a Gaussian distribution around the anode–cathode axis and a logarithmic distribution parallel to this axis. Those characteristic distributions are used to determine the center of the radiation field as well as the cathode–anode axis, allowing for the automatic determination of the correlation between these two sets of data. The measurements obtained with our proposed method differs on average by 2.49 mm in the direction perpendicular to the anode–cathode axis and 2.02 mm parallel to the anode–cathode axis of commercial equipment. The method eliminates around 94% of the Heel effect in the radiological image and the objects will reflect their x-ray absorption. To evaluate this method, experimental data was taken from known objects, but could also be done with clinical and digital images