Development of a Technology, Processing Carbon-containing Fine-grained Waste into High-quality Briquette Fuel

This article provides an overview of existing methods and techniques for processing man-made carbonaceous wastes from the coke chemical and coal mining industries, i.e. coke and coal dust. The advantages and disadvantages of the methods are briefly described. Based on the advantages, an oil agglomeration method was chosen to enrich the coke and coal dust. This method is effective in the enrichment of fine-grained waste, such as coal and coke dust, while the yield of the carbonaceous concentrate is up to 85%. The results of the technical analysis of the initial carboncontaining wastes and the obtained coal concentrate are presented. The qualitative characteristics of the briquetted fuel obtained on the basis of the concentrate are given. The specifications of the briquetted fuel are presented and its advantages are described. Keywords: coke and coal dust, oil agglomeration, low ash concentrat

Composite fuel based on residue from tyre and secondary polymer pyrolysis

The article presents the analysis of obtaining high-quality molded solid fuel from waste that is a carbonaceous residue obtained by pyrolysis of automobile tyres and secondary polymers. Preliminary waste preparing, blending and briquetting have been carried out; fuel samples have been obtained; their strength characteristics have been studied; technical analysis has been carried out

High-boiling components in straw oil

Investigation of straw oil and polymer quality produced in the process of its regeneration has been carried out. The conclusions about using polymers as a material for base end products are made. Flow scheme of technological treatment of straw oil wastes is suggested

Manufacture of desired end products by means of fine treatment of coal tar resin

The possibility of desired end product manufacture from by-product coke industry wastes is shown. A large number of valuable products can be obtained from different fractions of coal tar resin by their fine treatment. The products obtained in this way find application in medical and chemical industries and etc. Moreover, recycling of by-product coke wastes into end products solves the problem of their utilization

Technique of complex slime water treatment of coal-mining branch

The possibility of complex slime water treatment at coal-mining and coal-treating plants producing marketable products: power-generating concentrate, coal-water fuel, magnetic fraction, industrial water is shown. A basic process flowsheet of slime water treatment presenting a united technological complex is suggested

Use of ambient light in remote photoplethysmographic systems: comparison between a high-performance camera and a low-cost webcam

Imaging photoplethysmography (PPG) is able to capture useful physiological data remotely from a wide range of anatomical locations. Recent imaging PPG studies have concentrated on two broad research directions involving either high-performance cameras and or webcam-based systems. However, little has been reported about the difference between these two techniques, particularly in terms of their performance under illumination with ambient light. We explore these two imaging PPG approaches through the simultaneous measurement of the cardiac pulse acquired from the face of 10 male subjects and the spectral characteristics of ambient light. Measurements are made before and after a period of cycling exercise. The physiological pulse waves extracted from both imaging PPG systems using the smoothed pseudo-Wigner-Ville distribution yield functional characteristics comparable to those acquired using gold standard contact PPG sensors. The influence of ambient light intensity on the physiological information is considered, where results reveal an independent relationship between the ambient light intensity and the normalized plethysmographic signals. This provides further support for imaging PPG as a means for practical noncontact physiological assessment with clear applications in several domains, including telemedicine and homecare

Comparison of scientific CMOS camera and webcam for monitoring cardiac pulse after exercise

In light of its capacity for remote physiological assessment over a wide range of anatomical locations, imaging photoplethysmography has become an attractive research area in biomedical and clinical community. Amongst recent iPPG studies, two separate research directions have been revealed, i.e., scientific camera based imaging PPG (iPPG) and webcam based imaging PPG (wPPG). Little is known about the difference between these two techniques. To address this issue, a dual-channel imaging PPG system (iPPG and wPPG) using ambient light as the illumination source has been introduced in this study. The performance of the two imaging PPG techniques was evaluated through the measurement of cardiac pulse acquired from the face of 10 male subjects before and after 10 min of cycling exercise. A time-frequency representation method was used to visualize the time-dependent behaviour of the heart rate. In comparison to the gold standard contact PPG, both imaging PPG techniques exhibit comparable functional characteristics in the context of cardiac pulse assessment. Moreover, the synchronized ambient light intensity recordings in the present study can provide additional information for appraising the performance of the imaging PPG systems. This feasibility study thereby leads to a new route for non-contact monitoring of vital signs, with clear applications in triage and homecare

Deterministic mechanical model of T-killer cell polarization reproduces the wandering of aim between simultaneously engaged targets

T-killer cells of the immune system eliminate virus-infected and tumorous cells through direct cell-cell interactions. Reorientation of the killing apparatus inside the T cell to the T-cell interface with the target cell ensures specificity of the immune response. The killing apparatus can also oscillate next to the cell-cell interface. When two target cells are engaged by the T cell simultaneously, the killing apparatus can oscillate between the two interface areas. This oscillation is one of the most striking examples of cell movements that give the microscopist an unmechanistic impression of the cell's fidgety indecision. We have constructed a three-dimensional, numerical biomechanical model of the molecular-motor-driven microtubule cytoskeleton that positions the killing apparatus. The model demonstrates that the cortical pulling mechanism is indeed capable of orienting the killing apparatus into the functional position under a range of conditions. The model also predicts experimentally testable limitations of this commonly hypothesized mechanism of T-cell polarization. After the reorientation, the numerical solution exhibits complex, multidirectional, multiperiodic, and sustained oscillations in the absence of any external guidance or stochasticity. These computational results demonstrate that the strikingly animate wandering of aim in T-killer cells has a purely mechanical and deterministic explanation. © 2009 Kim, Maly

Functional cartography of complex metabolic networks

High-throughput techniques are leading to an explosive growth in the size of biological databases and creating the opportunity to revolutionize our understanding of life and disease. Interpretation of these data remains, however, a major scientific challenge. Here, we propose a methodology that enables us to extract and display information contained in complex networks. Specifically, we demonstrate that one can (i) find functional modules in complex networks, and (ii) classify nodes into universal roles according to their pattern of intra- and inter-module connections. The method thus yields a ``cartographic representation'' of complex networks. Metabolic networks are among the most challenging biological networks and, arguably, the ones with more potential for immediate applicability. We use our method to analyze the metabolic networks of twelve organisms from three different super-kingdoms. We find that, typically, 80% of the nodes are only connected to other nodes within their respective modules, and that nodes with different roles are affected by different evolutionary constraints and pressures. Remarkably, we find that low-degree metabolites that connect different modules are more conserved than hubs whose links are mostly within a single module.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures. Go to http://amaral.northwestern.edu for the PDF file of the reprin

The NASA Exoplanet Archive: Data and Tools for Exoplanet Research

We describe the contents and functionality of the NASA Exoplanet Archive, a database and tool set funded by NASA to support astronomers in the exoplanet community. The current content of the database includes interactive tables containing properties of all published exoplanets, Kepler planet candidates, threshold-crossing events, data validation reports and target stellar parameters, light curves from the Kepler and CoRoT missions and from several ground-based surveys, and spectra and radial velocity measurements from the literature. Tools provided to work with these data include a transit ephemeris predictor, both for single planets and for observing locations, light curve viewing and normalization utilities, and a periodogram and phased light curve service. The archive can be accessed at http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 4 figure