A Remotely Operable Facility for Fabrication of Fuel Pins for test Irradiation

AbstractA laboratory scale facility has been set up for fabrication of test fuel pins through sol-gel route for irradiation in FBTR, Kalpakkam. The facility is a train of glove boxes fitted with master slave manipulators for carrying out various operations involved in the fuel fabricat ion process. The paper describes the design features of the equipment and mechanisms for automation, developed for microsphere production and other processes. The design features include control system and vision systems for man- machine interface

Thermal conditions affecting heat transfer in FDM/FFE: a contribution towards the numerical modelling of the process

The performance of parts produced by Free Form Extrusion (FFE), an increasingly popular additive manufacturing technique, depends mainly on their dimensional accuracy, surface quality and mechanical performance. These attributes are strongly influenced by the evolution of the filament temperature and deformation during deposition and solidification. Consequently, the availability of adequate process modelling software would offer a powerful tool to support efficient process set-up and optimisation. This work examines the contribution to the overall heat transfer of various thermal phenomena developing during the manufacturing sequence, including convection and radiation with the environment, conduction with support and between adjacent filaments, radiation between adjacent filaments and convection with entrapped air. The magnitude of the mechanical deformation is also studied. Once this exercise is completed, it is possible to select the material properties, process variables and thermal phenomena that should be taken in for effective numerical modelling of FFE.This work was supported by Strategic Project - LA 25 - 2013–2014 [PEst-C/CTM/LA0025/2013]

Marketing and public policy: Transformative research in developing markets

Developing markets are a challenge for researchers who study them and for governments, business leaders, and citizens who strive to improve the quality of life in them. The limitations of the dominant development paradigm coupled with the need to focus on consumers provide tremendous opportunities to engage in truly transformative research. Toward this outcome, several interactive forces must be understood and addressed during research design, management, and implementation. The purpose of this essay is to provide a synthesis-that is, a framework in the form of a conceptual model-with practical applications to transformative research in developing markets and, ultimately, with the broader objective to stimulate new conceptualizations, research, and best practices to transform consumer well-being. © 2012, American Marketing Association

Process simulation and analysis of carbon capture with an aqueous mixture of ionic liquid and monoethanolamine solvent

This study investigated the prospect of using aqueous mixture of 1-butylpyridinium tetrafluoroborate ([Bpy][BF4]) ionic liquid (IL) and monoethanolamine (MEA) as solvent in post-combustion CO2 capture (PCC) process. This is done by analysis of the process through modelling and simulation. In literature, reported PCC models with a mixture of IL and MEA solvent were developed using equilibrium-based mass transfer approach. In contrast, the model in this study is developed using rate-based mass transfer approach in Aspen Plus®. From the results, the mixed aqueous solvent with 5–30 wt% IL and 30 wt% MEA showed 7%–9% and 12%–27% less specific regeneration energy and solvent circulation rate respectively compared to commonly used 30 wt% MEA solvent. It is concluded that the IL concentration (wt%) in the solvent blend have significant impact on specific regeneration energy and solvent circulation rate. This study is a starting point for further research on technical and economic analysis of PCC process with aqueous blend of IL and MEA as solvent

Integrative multi-omics database (iMOMdb) of Asian pregnant women

Asians are underrepresented across many omics databases, thereby limiting the potential of precision medicine in nearly 60% of the global population. As such, there is a pressing need for multi-omics derived quantitative trait loci (QTLs) to fill the knowledge gap of complex traits in populations of Asian ancestry. Here, we provide the first blood-based multi-omics analysis of Asian pregnant women, constituting high-resolution genotyping (N= 1079), DNA methylation (N=915) and transcriptome profiling (N=238). Integrative omics analysis identified 219 154 CpGs associated with cis-DNA methylation QTLs (meQTLs) and 3703 RNAs associated with cis-RNA expression QTLs (eQTLs). Ethnicity was the largest contributor of inter-individual variation across all omics datasets, with 2561 genes identified as hotspots of this variation; 395 of these hotspot genes also contained both ethnicity-specific eQTLs and meQTLs. Gene set enrichment analysis of these ethnicity QTL hotspots showed pathways involved in lipid metabolism, adaptive immune system and carbohydrate metabolism. Pathway validation by profiling the lipidome (similar to 480 lipids) of antenatal plasma (N = 752) and placenta (N = 1042) in the same cohort showed significant lipid differences among Chinese, Malay and Indian women, validating ethnicity-QTL gene effects across different tissue types. To develop deeper insights into the complex traits and benefit future precision medicine research in Asian pregnant women, we developed iMOMdb, an open-access database.Peer reviewe

Population-based plasma lipidomics reveals developmental changes in metabolism and signatures of obesity risk : a mother-offspring cohort study

Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).Background: Lipids play a vital role in health and disease, but changes to their circulating levels and the link with obesity remain poorly characterized in expecting mothers and their offspring in early childhood. Methods: LC-MS/MS-based quantitation of 480 lipid species was performed on 2491 plasma samples collected at 4 time points in the mother-offspring Asian cohort GUSTO (Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes). These 4 time points constituted samples collected from mothers at 26–28 weeks of gestation (n=752) and 4–5 years postpartum (n=650), and their offspring at birth (n=751) and 6 years of age (n=338). Linear regression models were used to identify the pregnancy and developmental age-specific variations in the plasma lipidomic profiles, and their association with obesity risk. An independent birth cohort (n=1935), the Barwon Infant Study (BIS), comprising mother-offspring dyads of Caucasian origin was used for validation. Results: Levels of 36% of the profiled lipids were significantly higher (absolute fold change > 1.5 and Padj < 0.05) in antenatal maternal circulation as compared to the postnatal phase, with phosphatidylethanolamine levels changing the most. Compared to antenatal maternal lipids, cord blood showed lower concentrations of most lipid species (79%) except lysophospholipids and acylcarnitines. Changes in lipid concentrations from birth to 6 years of age were much higher in magnitude (log2FC=−2.10 to 6.25) than the changes observed between a 6-year-old child and an adult (postnatal mother) (log2FC=−0.68 to 1.18). Associations of cord blood lipidomic profiles with birth weight displayed distinct trends compared to the lipidomic profiles associated with child BMI at 6 years. Comparison of the results between the child and adult BMI identified similarities in association with consistent trends (R2=0.75). However, large number of lipids were associated with BMI in adults (67%) compared to the children (29%). Pre-pregnancy BMI was specifically associated with decrease in the levels of phospholipids, sphingomyelin, and several triacylglycerol species in pregnancy. Conclusions: In summary, our study provides a detailed landscape of the in utero lipid environment provided by the gestating mother to the growing fetus, and the magnitude of changes in plasma lipidomic profiles from birth to early childhood. We identified the effects of adiposity on the circulating lipid levels in pregnant and non-pregnant women as well as offspring at birth and at 6 years of age. Additionally, the pediatric vs maternal overlap of the circulating lipid phenotype of obesity risk provides intergenerational insights and early opportunities to track and intervene the onset of metabolic adversities. Clinical trial registration: This birth cohort is a prospective observational study, which was registered on 1 July 2010 under the identifier NCT01174875.Peer reviewe

High Performance Flexible All Perovskite Tandem Solar Cells with Reduced Voc Deficit in Wide Bandgap Subcell

Among various types of perovskite based tandem solar cells TSCs , all perovskite TSCs are of particular attractiveness for building and vehicle integrated photovoltaics, or space energy areas as they can be fabricated on flexible and lightweight substrates with a very high power to weight ratio. However, the efficiency of flexible all perovskite tandems is lagging far behind their rigid counterparts primarily due to the challenges in developing efficient wide bandgap WBG perovskite solar cells on the flexible substrates as well as their low open circuit voltage VOC . Here, it is reported that the use of self assembled monolayers as hole selective contact effectively suppresses the interfacial recombination and allows the subsequent uniform growth of a 1.77 eV WBG perovskite with superior optoelectronic quality. In addition, a postdeposition treatment with 2 thiopheneethylammonium chloride is employed to further suppress the bulk and interfacial recombination, boosting the VOC of the WBG top cell to 1.29 V. Based on this, the first proof of concept four terminal all perovskite flexible TSC with a power conversion efficiency of 22.6 is presented. When integrating into two terminal flexible tandems, 23.8 flexible all perovskite TSCs with a superior VOC of 2.1 V is achieved, which is on par with the VOC reported on the 28 all perovskite tandems grown on the rigid substrat

Identification of Metabolites in the Normal Ovary and Their Transformation in Primary and Metastatic Ovarian Cancer

In this study, we characterized the metabolome of the human ovary and identified metabolic alternations that coincide with primary epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) and metastatic tumors resulting from primary ovarian cancer (MOC) using three analytical platforms: gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) using buffer systems and instrument settings to catalog positive or negative ions. The human ovarian metabolome was found to contain 364 biochemicals and upon transformation of the ovary caused changes in energy utilization, altering metabolites associated with glycolysis and β-oxidation of fatty acids—such as carnitine (1.79 fold in EOC, p<0.001; 1.88 fold in MOC, p<0.001), acetylcarnitine (1.75 fold in EOC, p<0.001; 2.39 fold in MOC, p<0.001), and butyrylcarnitine (3.62 fold, p<0.0094 in EOC; 7.88 fold, p<0.001 in MOC). There were also significant changes in phenylalanine catabolism marked by increases in phenylpyruvate (4.21 fold; p = 0.0098) and phenyllactate (195.45 fold; p<0.0023) in EOC. Ovarian cancer also displayed an enhanced oxidative stress response as indicated by increases in 2-aminobutyrate in EOC (1.46 fold, p = 0.0316) and in MOC (2.25 fold, p<0.001) and several isoforms of tocopherols. We have also identified novel metabolites in the ovary, specifically N-acetylasparate and N-acetyl-aspartyl-glutamate, whose role in ovarian physiology has yet to be determined. These data enhance our understanding of the diverse biochemistry of the human ovary and demonstrate metabolic alterations upon transformation. Furthermore, metabolites with significant changes between groups provide insight into biochemical consequences of transformation and are candidate biomarkers of ovarian oncogenesis. Validation studies are warranted to determine whether these compounds have clinical utility in the diagnosis or clinical management of ovarian cancer patients

Co-limitation towards lower latitudes shapes global forest diversity gradients

The latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG) is one of the most recognized global patterns of species richness exhibited across a wide range of taxa. Numerous hypotheses have been proposed in the past two centuries to explain LDG, but rigorous tests of the drivers of LDGs have been limited by a lack of high-quality global species richness data. Here we produce a high-resolution (0.025° × 0.025°) map of local tree species richness using a global forest inventory database with individual tree information and local biophysical characteristics from ~1.3 million sample plots. We then quantify drivers of local tree species richness patterns across latitudes. Generally, annual mean temperature was a dominant predictor of tree species richness, which is most consistent with the metabolic theory of biodiversity (MTB). However, MTB underestimated LDG in the tropics, where high species richness was also moderated by topographic, soil and anthropogenic factors operating at local scales. Given that local landscape variables operate synergistically with bioclimatic factors in shaping the global LDG pattern, we suggest that MTB be extended to account for co-limitation by subordinate drivers

Hydrogen storage in liquid hydrogen carriers: recent activities and new trends

Efficient storage of hydrogen is one of the biggest challenges towards a potential hydrogen economy. Hydrogen storage in liquid carriers is an attractive alternative to compression or liquefaction at low temperatures. Liquid carriers can be stored cost-effectively and transportation and distribution can be integrated into existing infrastructures. The development of efficient liquid carriers is part of the work of the International Energy Agency Task 40: Hydrogen-Based Energy Storage. Here, we report the state-of-the-art for ammonia and closed CO2-cycle methanol-based storage options as well for liquid organic hydrogen carriers