H2_2 [Pt(C2_2O4_4)2_2] as a Tailor‐made Halide‐free Precursor for the Preparation of Diesel Oxidation Catalysts: Nanoparticles Formation, Thermal Stability and Catalytic Performance

The aim of this study was to investigate a tailor-made metal precursor and its chemical properties to tune the properties of supported metal nanoparticles (NPs) and their catalytic performance when used as Diesel Oxidation Catalyst (DOC). The formation of extremely small Pt NPs from a new halide-free Pt complex was investigated, namely bis(oxalato)platinate, H$_2$ [Pt(C$_2$O$_4$)$_2$]. The size evolution of the supported NPs, from the formation upon the Pt precursor decomposition on γ-alumina to the sintering of the NPs at high temperatures, was followed by thermogravimetric analysis coupled with mass spectrometry (TG-MS) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform (DRIFT) spectroscopy. A correlation between the NPs’ size of the catalyst and the performance for the CO, C$_3$H$_6$, C$_3$H$_8$ and NO oxidation reactions pointed out a retained activity during test cycles, showing low sensitivity to the test conditions applied (i. e., temperature and gas composition). The overall catalytic performance was better in the fresh catalysts compared to the reference catalyst prepared from platinum nitrate, Pt(NO$_3$)$_4$. In particular, the different dispersion of the Pt NPs over the support obtained from the two precursors was identified as the reason for the different catalytic performance, retaining small NPs size after the tests cycles

Phosphatidylinositol-(4,5)-bisphosphate regulates sorting signal recognition by the clathrin-associated adaptor complex AP2

The alpha,beta2,mu2,sigma2 heterotetrameric AP2 complex is recruited exclusively to the phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate (PtdIns4,5P(2))-rich plasma membrane where, amongst other roles, it selects motif-containing cargo proteins for incorporation into clathrin-coated vesicles. Unphosphorylated and mu2Thr156-monophosphorylated AP2 mutated in their alphaPtdIns4,5P(2), mu2PtdIns4,5P(2), and mu2Yxxvarphi binding sites were produced, and their interactions with membranes of different phospholipid and cargo composition were measured by surface plasmon resonance. We demonstrate that recognition of Yxxvarphi and acidic dileucine motifs is dependent on corecognition with PtdIns4,5P(2), explaining the selective recruitment of AP2 to the plasma membrane. The interaction of AP2 with PtdIns4,5P(2)/Yxxvarphi-containing membranes is two step: initial recruitment via the alphaPtdIns4,5P(2) site and then stabilization through the binding of mu2Yxxvarphi and mu2PtdIns4,5P(2) sites to their ligands. The second step is facilitated by a conformational change favored by mu2Thr156 phosphorylation. The binding of AP2 to acidic-dileucine motifs occurs at a different site from Yxxvarphi binding and is not enhanced by mu2Thr156 phosphorylation

Statistical features of edge turbulence in RFX-mod from Gas Puffing Imaging

Plasma density fluctuations in the edge plasma of the RFX-mod device are measured through the Gas Puffing Imaging Diagnostics. Statistical features of the signal are quantified in terms of the Probability Distribution Function (PDF), and computed for several kinds of discharges. The PDFs from discharges without particular control methods are found to be adequately described by a Gamma function, consistently with the recent results by Graves et al [J.P. Graves, et al, Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 47, L1 (2005)]. On the other hand, pulses with external methods for plasma control feature modified PDFs. A first empirical analysis suggests that they may be interpolated through a linear combination of simple functions. An inspection of the literature shows that this kind of PDFs is common to other devices as well, and has been suggested to be due to the simultaneous presence of different mechanisms driving respectively coherent bursts and gaussian background turbulence. An attempt is made to relate differences in the PDFs to plasma conditions such as the local shift of the plasma column. A simple phenomenological model to interpret the nature of the PDF and assign a meaning to its parameters is also developed.Comment: 27 pages. Published in PPC

Microalgae production in fresh market wastewater and its utilization as a protein substitute in formulated fish feed for oreochromis spp.

Rapid growing of human population has led to increasing demand of aquaculture production. Oreochromis niloticus or known as tilapia is one of the most globally cultured freshwater fish due to its great adaptation towards extreme environment. Besides, farming of tilapia not only involves small scales farming for local consumption but also larger scales for international market which contributes to a foreign currency earning. Extensive use of fishmeal as feed for fish and for other animals indirectly caused an increasing depletion of the natural resource and may consequently cause economic and environmental unstable. Microalgae biomass seems to be a promising feedstock in aquaculture industry. It can be used for many purposes such as live food for fish larvae and dried microalgae to substitute protein material in fish feed. The microalgae replacement in fish feed formulation as protein alternative seem potentially beneficial for long term aqua-business sustainability. The present chapter discussed the potential of microalgae as an alternative nutrition in fish feed formulations, specifically Tilapia

investigation of probe surfaces after ion cyclotron wall conditioning in asdex upgrade

For the first time, material analysis techniques have been applied to study the effect of ion cyclotron wall conditioning (ICWC) on probe surfaces in a metal-wall machine. ICWC is a technique envisaged to contribute to the removal of fuel and impurities from the first wall of ITER. The objective of this work was to assess impurity migration under ICWC operation. Tungsten probes were exposed in ASDEX Upgrade to discharges in helium. After wall conditioning, the probes were covered with a co-deposited layer containing D, B, C, N, O and relatively high amount of He. The concentration ratio He/C+B was 0.7. The formation of the co-deposited layer indicates that a fraction of the impurities desorbed from the wall under ICWC operation are transported by plasma and deposited away from their original location. Keywords: ICWC, Erosion-deposition, Fuel removal, Ion beam analysis, ASDEX Upgrad

Pattern and determinants of hospitalization during heat waves: an ecologic study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Numerous studies have investigated mortality during a heatwave, while few have quantified heat associated morbidity. Our aim was to investigate the relationship between hospital admissions and intensity, duration and timing of heatwave across the summer months.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study area (Veneto Region, Italy) holds 4577408 inhabitants (on January 1^st, 2003), and is subdivided in seven provinces with 60 hospitals and about 20000 beds for acute care. Five consecutive heatwaves (three or more consecutive days with Humidex above 40°C) occurred during summer 2002 and 2003 in the region. From the regional computerized archive of hospital discharge records, we extracted the daily count of hospital admissions for people aged ≥75, from June 1 through August 31 in 2002 and 2003. Among people aged over 74 years, daily hospital admissions for disorders of fluid and electrolyte balance, acute renal failure, and heat stroke (grouped in a single nosologic entity, heat diseases, HD), respiratory diseases (RD), circulatory diseases (CD), and a reference category chosen a priori (fractures of the femur, FF) were independently analyzed by Generalized Estimating Equations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Heatwave duration, not intensity, increased the risk of hospital admissions for HD and RD by, respectively, 16% (p < .0001) and 5% (p < .0001) with each additional day of heatwave duration. At least four consecutive hot humid days were required to observe a major increase in hospital admissions, the excesses being more than twofold for HD (p < .0001) and about 50% for RD (p < .0001). Hospital admissions for HD peaked equally at the first heatwave (early June) and last heatwave (August) in 2004 as did RD. No correlation was found for FF or CD admissions.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The first four days of an heatwave had only minor effects, thus supporting heat health systems where alerts are based on duration of hot humid days. Although the finding is based on a single late summer heatwave, adaptations to extreme temperature in late summer seem to be unlikely.</p

POTENCIAL DE DISSEMINAÇÃO DE Salmonella sp. PROVENIENTE DE LINFONODOS MESENTÉRICOS DE SUÍNOS ABATIDOS NA REGIÃO OESTE DO PARANÁ PARA SUPERFÍCIE DE MESA DE INSPEÇÃO DE VÍSCERAS BRANCAS, FACAS E LUVAS DE AUXILIARES DE INSPEÇÃO DURANTE A INSPEÇÃO POST-MORTEM

O presente estudo foi realizado com o objetivo de verificar os sorovares de Salmonella sp. em linfonodos mesentéricos de suínos, bem como o potencial de disseminação deste agente durante as atividades de abate e inspeção, correlacionando-os com as superfícies amostradas. Esses animais foram criados sob confinamento e abatidos em estabelecimento sob Inspeção Federal localizado na região oeste do Paraná. O experimento foi realizado em cinco repetições sendo que em cada uma foram coletadas 30 amostras de linfonodos mesentéricos, 12 suabes de mesas de inspeção de vísceras brancas, oito suabes das lâminas de facas utilizadas durante a inspeção dos linfonodos e quatro suabes da superfície das luvas dos auxiliares de inspeção em diversos momentos do abate. A partir da análise microbiológica da cadeia linfática mesentérica de 150 animais, encontrou-se Salmonella sp em 17,3% (26/150) dos linfonodos analisados. O agente ainda foi isolado em 5,0% (2/40) das superfícies de lâminas de facas amostradas e em 28,3% (17/60) das mesas de inspeção de vísceras brancas. Nenhuma amostra positiva (0/20) foi encontrada nas luvas dos inspetores. Pode-se concluir que sorovares de Salmonella originários de linfonodos mesentéricos e encontrados em superfícies que entram em contato com o produto demonstram o potencial de disseminação do agente durante o processo de abate com consequente contaminação cruzada. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: linfonodos mesentéricos; Salmonella sp.; suínos

The Rule of Law: Measurement and Deep Roots

This paper does three things. First, based on a limited number of theoretically established dimensions, it proposes a new de facto indicator for the rule of law. It is the first such indicator to take the quality of legal norms explicitly into account. Second, using this indicator we shed new light on the relationship between the rule of law and the political system of a country. Presidential governments tend to score significantly lower on the rule of law indicator than parliamentary ones. Many presidential democracies are even outperformed by dictatorships. The observation that political systems hardly predetermine the rule of law level raises the question why the authority of law differs across societies in its capacity to constrain the behavior of public officials. Third, because of this question, we investigate the roots of the rule of law. As theory on this specific question is scarce and the rule of law is closely associated with income levels, we draw on a topical literature that deals with the fundamental causes of economic development. Our findings suggest that specific determinants of long-run development operate via the rule of law, whereas others are not related to the rule of law at all. Our empirical evidence does, however, support not only the “primacy of institutions” view, but also the important role that human capital, which European settlers brought to their colonies, played in historical economic development

Start of SPIDER operation towards ITER neutral beams

Heating Neutral Beam (HNB) Injectors will constitute the main plasma heating and current drive tool both in ITER and JT60-SA, which are the next major experimental steps for demonstrating nuclear fusion as viable energy source. In ITER, in order to achieve the required thermonuclear fusion power gain Q=10 for short pulse operation and Q=5 for long pulse operation (up to 3600s), two HNB injectors will be needed [1], each delivering a total power of about 16.5 MW into the magnetically-confined plasma, by means of neutral hydrogen or deuterium particles having a specific energy of about 1 MeV. Since only negatively charged particles can be efficiently neutralized at such energy, the ITER HNB injectors [2] will be based on negative ions, generated by caesium-catalysed surface conversion of atoms in a radio-frequency driven plasma source. A negative deuterium ion current of more than 40 A will be extracted, accelerated and focused in a multi-aperture, multi-stage electrostatic accelerator, having 1280 apertures (~ 14 mm diam.) and 5 acceleration stages (~200 kV each) [3]. After passing through a narrow gas-cell neutralizer, the residual ions will be deflected and discarded, whereas the neutralized particles will continue their trajectory through a duct into the tokamak vessels to deliver the required heating power to the ITER plasma for a pulse duration of about 3600 s. Although the operating principles and the implementation of the most critical parts of the injector have been tested in different experiments, the ITER NBI requirements have never been simultaneously attained. In order to reduce the risks and to optimize the design and operating procedures of the HNB for ITER, a dedicated Neutral Beam Test Facility (NBTF) [4] has been promoted by the ITER Organization with the contribution of the European Union\u2019s Joint Undertaking for ITER and of the Italian Government, with the participation of the Japanese and Indian Domestic Agencies (JADA and INDA) and of several European laboratories, such as IPP-Garching, KIT-Karlsruhe, CCFE-Culham, CEA-Cadarache. The NBTF, nicknamed PRIMA, has been set up at Consorzio RFX in Padova, Italy [5]. The planned experiments will verify continuous HNB operation for one hour, under stringent requirements for beam divergence (< 7 mrad) and aiming (within 2 mrad). To study and optimise HNB performances, the NBTF includes two experiments: MITICA, full-scale NBI prototype with 1 MeV particle energy and SPIDER, with 100 keV particle energy and 40 A current, aiming at testing and optimizing the full-scale ion source. SPIDER will focus on source uniformity, negative ion current density and beam optics. In June 2018 the experimental operation of SPIDER has started