Mixed Plastics Waste to Ethylene and Propylene Feedstocks

Circular recycle of waste plastic holds significant environmental benefit in reducing the need for crude oil feed to produce plastic monomers and in addressing massive global accumulation of plastic waste. A two-stage cracking process is here explored for the reduction of long-chain polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and polystyrene (PS) to ethylene and propylene. The reaction yields useful byproducts, such as liquid fuel used to sustain the high energy demands of the process, and pressurized steam. A feed of 70 MT/day of PE, PP, and PS is assumed to be treated first in a rotary kiln pyrolysis reactor and secondly in a steam-cracking unit for the formation of short-chain unsaturated hydrocarbons. 41% of the feedstock by weight is converted to either ethylene or propylene. Due to the random nature of cracking, a pilot plant is deemed necessary to better understand this conversion. Heat integration is explored extensively throughout the cracking to employ other process products as fuel sources. A novel separation train and refrigeration cycle are then designed to isolate the two products of interest. The process is found not to be profitable, with an Internal Rate of Return of -4.74%, Net Present Value of - $18.8MM, and Return on Investment (ROI) in the third year of operation of -2.12%. However, a circular monomers facility holds significant value environmentally, and options are thus explored to potentially reduce the cost or make the process profitable

Contrastive linear regression

Contrastive dimension reduction methods have been developed for case-control study data to identify variation that is enriched in the foreground (case) data X relative to the background (control) data Y. Here, we develop contrastive regression for the setting when there is a response variable r associated with each foreground observation. This situation occurs frequently when, for example, the unaffected controls do not have a disease grade or intervention dosage but the affected cases have a disease grade or intervention dosage, as in autism severity, solid tumors stages, polyp sizes, or warfarin dosages. Our contrastive regression model captures shared low-dimensional variation between the predictors in the cases and control groups, and then explains the case-specific response variables through the variance that remains in the predictors after shared variation is removed. We show that, in one single-nucleus RNA sequencing dataset on autism severity in postmortem brain samples from donors with and without autism and in another single-cell RNA sequencing dataset on cellular differentiation in chronic rhinosinusitis with and without nasal polyps, our contrastive linear regression performs feature ranking and identifies biologically-informative predictors associated with response that cannot be identified using other approache

Claudin-1 induced sealing of blood-brain barrier tight junctions ameliorates chronic experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis

In experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model for multiple sclerosis (MS), loss of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) tight junction (TJ) protein claudin-3 correlates with immune cell infiltration into the CNS and BBB leakiness. Here we show that sealing BBB TJs by ectopic tetracycline-regulated expression of the TJ protein claudin-1 in Tie-2 tTA//TRE-claudin-1 double transgenic C57BL/6 mice had no influence on immune cell trafficking across the BBB during EAE and furthermore did not influence the onset and severity of the first clinical disease episode. However, expression of claudin-1 did significantly reduce BBB leakiness for both blood borne tracers and endogenous plasma proteins specifically around vessels expressing claudin-1. In addition, mice expressing claudin-1 exhibited a reduced disease burden during the chronic phase of EAE as compared to control littermates. Our study identifies BBB TJs as the critical structure regulating BBB permeability but not immune cell trafficking into CNS during EAE, and indicates BBB dysfunction is a potential key event contributing to disease burden in the chronic phase of EAE. Our observations suggest that stabilizing BBB barrier function by therapeutic targeting of TJs may be beneficial in treating MS, especially when anti-inflammatory treatments have faile

Three-Dimensional cryoEM Reconstruction of Native LDL Particles to 16 angstrom Resolution at Physiological Body Temperature

Background Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) particles, the major carriers of cholesterol in the human circulation, have a key role in cholesterol physiology and in the development of atherosclerosis. The most prominent structural components in LDL are the core-forming cholesteryl esters (CE) and the particle-encircling single copy of a huge, non-exchangeable protein, the apolipoprotein B-100 (apoB-100). The shape of native LDL particles and the conformation of native apoB-100 on the particles remain incompletely characterized at the physiological human body temperature (37°C). Methodology/Principal Findings To study native LDL particles, we applied cryo-electron microscopy to calculate 3D reconstructions of LDL particles in their hydrated state. Images of the particles vitrified at 6°C and 37°C resulted in reconstructions at ~16 Å resolution at both temperatures. 3D variance map analysis revealed rigid and flexible domains of lipids and apoB-100 at both temperatures. The reconstructions showed less variability at 6°C than at 37°C, which reflected increased order of the core CE molecules, rather than decreased mobility of the apoB-100. Compact molecular packing of the core and order in a lipid-binding domain of apoB-100 were observed at 6°C, but not at 37°C. At 37°C we were able to highlight features in the LDL particles that are not clearly separable in 3D maps at 6°C. Segmentation of apoB-100 density, fitting of lipovitellin X-ray structure, and antibody mapping, jointly revealed the approximate locations of the individual domains of apoB-100 on the surface of native LDL particles. Conclusions/Significance Our study provides molecular background for further understanding of the link between structure and function of native LDL particles at physiological body temperature.Peer reviewe

Legitimacy of group­-specific support for college access. Results of an experimental vignette study

In einer experimentellen Vignettenstudie sollten die Befragten darüber entscheiden, ob Studienbewerber(innen) beispielsweise aufgrund ihres Migrationshintergrunds, ihrer sozialen Herkunft oder Anstrengung jeweils einen Bonus oder Malus auf die Zulassungsnote angerechnet bekommen sollen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Dimensionen sozialer Bildungsungleichheit tendenziell in Richtung einer Kompensation berücksichtigt werden. Damit gibt es Hinweise auf eine gewisse Legitimität von Massnahmen im Sinne positiver Diskriminierung beim Hochschulzugang. (DIPF/Orig.)In an experimental vignette study, the respondents were asked to decide whether college applicants should be credited with a bonus or malus on the admission grade, for example due to their migration background, social origin, or effort. The results show that dimensions of social educational inequality tend to be considered in the direction of com­pensation. Hence, there is evidence of a certain legitimacy of measures in the sense of positive discrimination in university access. (DIPF/Orig.

Correlation functions quantify super-resolution images and estimate apparent clustering due to over-counting

We present an analytical method to quantify clustering in super-resolution localization images of static surfaces in two dimensions. The method also describes how over-counting of labeled molecules contributes to apparent self-clustering and how the effective lateral resolution of an image can be determined. This treatment applies to clustering of proteins and lipids in membranes, where there is significant interest in using super-resolution localization techniques to probe membrane heterogeneity. When images are quantified using pair correlation functions, the magnitude of apparent clustering due to over-counting will vary inversely with the surface density of labeled molecules and does not depend on the number of times an average molecule is counted. Over-counting does not yield apparent co-clustering in double label experiments when pair cross-correlation functions are measured. We apply our analytical method to quantify the distribution of the IgE receptor (Fc{\epsilon}RI) on the plasma membranes of chemically fixed RBL-2H3 mast cells from images acquired using stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). We find that apparent clustering of labeled IgE bound to Fc{\epsilon}RI detected with both methods arises from over-counting of individual complexes. Thus our results indicate that these receptors are randomly distributed within the resolution and sensitivity limits of these experiments.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figure