Densities and phase equilibria of hydrogen, propane and vegetable oil mixtures. Experimental data and thermodynamic modeling

Heterogeneous catalytic gas-liquid reactions are intensified when carried out in the homogenous fluid phase by means of a supercritical co-solvent. For instance, supercritical propane is used to enhance yield in the hydrogenation of vegetable oils. Besides phase equilibrium knowledge, volumetric information is also needed to elucidate kinetic mechanisms and design continuous supercritical reactors. In this work, we report new experimental PvT data of the reactive mixture H2+sunflower oil+propane using the isochoric method. In addition, the phase equilibria and PvT data are modeled with the GCA and RK-PR equations of state, respectively. The isochoric method not only provides PvT information under the reaction conditions, but also the reactive system compressibility, key variable to attain enhanced transport properties in the supercritical reactors.Fil: Hegel, Pablo Ezequiel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química; ArgentinaFil: Cotabarren, Natalia Soledad. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química; ArgentinaFil: Brignole, Esteban Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química; ArgentinaFil: Pereda, Selva. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química; Argentina. University of KwaZulu-Natal; Sudáfric

Application of the GCA-EOS model to the supercritical processing of associating oil derivatives: fatty acids, alcohols and triglycerides

Supercritical processes are of interest in the fatty oil industry for a variety of applications: extraction and refining, removal of pollutants, recovery of specialties, hydrogenation of oils and derivatives, etc. Typical process mixtures include heavy compounds and gases at near critical conditions. At high pressures these asymmetric systems present a complex multiphase behaviour, difficult to model. This complexity increases if some of the mixture components are able to self- and/or cross associate. In the present work, the group contribution with association equation of state (GCA-EoS) [3] is extended to represent high pressure phase equilibria in mixtures of supercritical gases (carbon dioxide, propane, ethane) with fatty oil derivatives, such as mono- and di-glycerides, fatty acids, alcohols, water and esters. Self- and cross association between associating groups present in these mixtures are considered. Satisfactory correlation and prediction of equilibrium data are obtained. The capacity of the model to follow the behaviour of solutions towards the limit of infinite dilution of the associating components is of particular importance

Influence of Type 2 Diabetes in the Association of PNPLA3 rs738409 and TM6SF2 rs58542926 Polymorphisms in NASH Advanced Liver Fibrosis

Advanced fibrosis; Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis; Type 2 diabetesFibrosis avanzada; Esteatohepatitis no alcohólica; Diabetes tipo 2Fibrosi avançada; Esteatohepatitis no alcohòlica; Diabetis tipus 2Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a leading cause of cirrhosis in western countries. Insulin resistance (IR), type 2 diabetes (T2D), and the polymorphisms patatin-like phospholipase domain-containing 3 (PNPLA3) rs738409 and transmembrane 6 superfamily member 2 (TM6SF2) rs58542926 are independent risk factors of NASH. Nevertheless, little is known about the interaction between IR and T2D with these polymorphisms in the pathogenesis of NASH and the development of advanced fibrosis. Thus, our study aimed to investigate this relationship. This is a cross-sectional study including NASH patients diagnosed by liver biopsy, at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital. A total of 140 patients were included (93 T2D, 47 non-T2D). T2D (OR = 4.67; 95%CI 2.13–10.20; p < 0.001), PNPLA3 rs738409 and TM6SF2 rs58542926 polymorphisms (OR = 3.94; 95%CI 1.63–9.54; p = 0.002) were independently related with advanced liver fibrosis. T2D increased the risk of advance fibrosis on top of the two polymorphisms (OR = 14.69; 95%CI 3.03–77.35; p = 0.001 for PNPLA3 rs738409 and OR = 11.45; 95%CI 3.16–41.55; p < 0.001 for TM6SF2 rs58542926). In non-T2D patients, the IR (HOMA-IR ≥ 5.2, OR = 14.33; 95%CI 2.14–18.66; p = 0.014) increased the risk of advanced fibrosis when the polymorphisms were present (OR = 19.04; 95%CI 1.71–650.84; p = 0.042). The T2D and IR status increase the risk of advanced fibrosis in patients with NASH carrying the PNPLA3 rs738409 and/or TM6SF2 rs58542926 polymorphisms, respectively

Towards a 6G embedding sustainability

From its conception, 6G is being designed with a particular focus on sustainability. The general philosophy of the H2020 Hexa-X project work on sustainability in 6G is based on two principles: to reduce direct negative life cycle impacts of 6G systems as much as possible (Sustainable 6G) and to analyze use cases that maximize positive environmental, social, and economic effects in other sectors of society (6G for Sustainability or its enablement effect). To apply this philosophy, Hexa-X is designing 6G with three sustainability objectives in mind: to enable the reduction of emissions in 6G-powered sectors of society, to reduce the total cost of ownership and to improve energy efficiency. This paper describes these objectives, their associated KPIs and quantitative targets, and the levers to reach them. Furthermore, to maximize the positive effects of 6G through the enablement effect, a link between 6G and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) framework is proposed and illustrated by Hexa-X use case families.Comment: IEEE ICC 2023 Second International Workshop on Green and Sustainable Networking (GreenNet), May 2023, Rome, Ital

When Sugar Reaches the Liver: Phenotypes of Patients with Diabetes and NAFLD

MODY diabetes; Liver fibrosis; Type 2 diabetesDiabetes MODY; Fibrosis hepática; Diabetes tipo 2Diabetis MODY; Fibrosi hepàtica; Diabetis tipus 2Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) have been traditionally linked to one another. Recent studies suggest that NAFLD may be increasingly common in other types of diabetes such as type 1 diabetes (T1DM) and less frequently ketone-prone and Maturity-onset Diabetes of the Young (MODY) diabetes. In this review, we address the relationship between hyperglycemia and insulin resistance and the onset and progression of NAFLD. In addition, despite the high rate of patients with T2DM and other diabetes phenotypes that can alter liver metabolism and consequently develop steatosis, fibrosis, and cirrhosis, NALFD screening is not still implemented in the daily care routine. Incorporating a clinical algorithm created around a simple, non-invasive, cost-effective model would identify high-risk patients. The principle behind managing these patients is to improve insulin resistance and hyperglycemia states with lifestyle changes, weight loss, and new drug therapies

Formación práctica con especial valor a la innovación y a la libertad de maniobra

En este trabajo se expone el modelo de prácticas de empresa destinadas a alumnos de las titulaciones de grado desarrollado de la Escuela Politécnica Superior y enfocadas en tecnologías de la información y las comunicaciones. El objetivo de dichas prácticas es la adquisición por parte del alumnado de competencias básicas para el trabajo en equipo como son la cooperación, la responsabilidad, la iniciativa, la toma de decisiones y liderazgo. Este modelo está influenciado por otros trabajos pioneros donde se premia la creatividad, innovación y la motivación entre los trabajadores. Potenciando este trabajo en equipo, facilitaremos la adaptación de nuestros estudiantes al mundo laboral, además de complementar formación individual que durante sus años de estudio han desarrollado. Los técnicos y profesores participantes en la red han desarrollado actividades que fomentan estos objetivos así como indicadores que nos han permitido evaluar el grado de consecución de objetivos

The EU Center of Excellence for Exascale in Solid Earth (ChEESE): Implementation, results, and roadmap for the second phase

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Para-infectious brain injury in COVID-19 persists at follow-up despite attenuated cytokine and autoantibody responses

To understand neurological complications of COVID-19 better both acutely and for recovery, we measured markers of brain injury, inflammatory mediators, and autoantibodies in 203 hospitalised participants; 111 with acute sera (1–11 days post-admission) and 92 convalescent sera (56 with COVID-19-associated neurological diagnoses). Here we show that compared to 60 uninfected controls, tTau, GFAP, NfL, and UCH-L1 are increased with COVID-19 infection at acute timepoints and NfL and GFAP are significantly higher in participants with neurological complications. Inflammatory mediators (IL-6, IL-12p40, HGF, M-CSF, CCL2, and IL-1RA) are associated with both altered consciousness and markers of brain injury. Autoantibodies are more common in COVID-19 than controls and some (including against MYL7, UCH-L1, and GRIN3B) are more frequent with altered consciousness. Additionally, convalescent participants with neurological complications show elevated GFAP and NfL, unrelated to attenuated systemic inflammatory mediators and to autoantibody responses. Overall, neurological complications of COVID-19 are associated with evidence of neuroglial injury in both acute and late disease and these correlate with dysregulated innate and adaptive immune responses acutely

Numérisation, compression et reconstruction d'un trafic radio large échelle pour l'internet des objets

The multiplicity of novel use cases for the Internet of Things (IoT) calls for new telecommunications protocols and modulations. However, the necessity to roll out a dedicated infrastructure to collect and process data sent by IoT devices can hinder the development of new standards for communications. In this thesis, we propose and study a technology-agnostic infrastructure aimed at collecting and processing information transmitted by IoT devices deployed on the field. Because communications from IoT devices can be sporadic, in particular when sensor networks are concerned, we consider that the signals received by the infrastructure access points are sparse in the time and/or frequency domains. Under such a condition, the Compressed Sensing (CS) framework offers the possibility to lower the sampling rate from the standard Nyquist rate. Our proposed infrastructure for data collection relies on the Multi-Rate Sampler (MRS), a CS-based sampling scheme that permits the reduction of the sampling rate and a relaxation of hardware constraints related to high-speed sampling. In this thesis, we provide a comprehensive analysis to adequately size an MRS-based infrastructure. Major results include a provision based on coprime integers to define the sampling rates of the MRS, the estimation of the noise variance and of the frequency-domain spectrum support for frequency-sparse signals, and a complete analysis of the MRS performance depending on a variety of parameters (number of samplers, signal sparsity level, bit error rate, and others).La multiplication des cas d’utilisation dans le cadre de l’Internet des Objets appelle au développement de nouveaux protocoles de télécommunications et de nouvelles modulations. Cependant, la nécessité de déployer une infrastructure dédiée à la collecte et au traitement des données envoyées par les appareils connectés peut freiner le développement de nouveaux standards de télécommunications. Dans cette thèse, nous proposons et étudions une infrastructure ne dépendant pas de la technologie de communication choisie, dont le but est de collecter et traiter les données émises par des appareils connectés déployés sur le terrain. Comme les communications des appareils connectés peuvent être sporadiques, notamment dans le cas des réseaux de capteurs, nous considérons que les signaux reçus par les points d’accès de l’infrastructure sont parcimonieux en temps et/ou en fréquence. Sous cette condition, le cadre de l’Echantillonnage Comprimé (EC) offre la possibilité d’abaisser le taux d’échantillonnage, par rapport au taux d’échantillonnage de Nyquist standard. Pour cela, notre infrastructure proposée de collecte de données s’appuie sur l’Echantillonneur Multi-Taux (EMT), un schéma d’échantillonnage fondé sur l’EC qui permet la réduction du taux d’échantillonnage et la relaxation de contraintes matérielles liées à l’échantillonnage à haute fréquence. Dans cette thèse, nous proposons une analyse poussée afin de dimensionner de manière adéquate une infrastructure fondée sur l’EMT. Parmi les résultats majeurs se trouvent le paramétrage, à l’aide de nombres premiers entre eux, des taux d’échantillonnage de l’EMT, l’estimation de la variance du bruit et du support spectral fréquentiel pour des signaux parcimonieux en fréquence, et une analyse complète des performances de l’EMT en fonction de plusieurs paramètres (nombre d’échantillonneurs, niveau de parcimonie du signal, taux d’erreur binaire, et autres)

Phase Equilibrium Engineering

It is with pleasure that I introduce the third volume in the Elsevier Book Series on Supercritical Fluid Science and Technology, Phase Equilibrium Engineering, which has been authored by Drs. Esteban Brignole and Selva Pereda from Universidad National del Sur, Argentina, with one chapter also contributed by Drs. Martin Cismondi and Marcelo S. Zabaloy from Universidad National de Co´rdoba and Universidad National del Sur, Argentina, respectively. They are all well-recognized names in the supercritical fluids and phase equilibria community. The book reflects and benefits from their many years of accumulated knowledge and practical expertise. Phase equilibrium is at the heart of chemical processes, and phase equilibrium at high pressures is a central theme in any application involving supercritical fluids. The topic becomes even more relevant when systems under consideration involve chemical transformations along a reaction coordinate which continually alter the compositional make up and thereby alter the phase equilibrium conditions. This book starts out with a clear statement of the significance of phase equilibrium in process development where there is a critical need to fill the gap between reaction and separation stages by designing and controlling the phase conditions that are essential for the success of the process. The book emphasizes the importance and the need for effective information flow along the pathways connecting the chemical plant or process to the laboratory, to the thermodynamics and phase equilibria, and to modeling and simulations. This four-node grid and their interplay form the essence of Phase Equilibrium Engineering. To provide a pedagogical development of the relevant engineering concepts, the authors start in Chapter 2 with a brief review of intermolecular forces (attractive and repulsive) and molecular interactions (dispersive, polar, electrostatic, induced dipole) that are important in phase equilibria and separation processes. Chapter 3 provides the background on thermodynamics of phase equilibrium and reviews the phase diagrams for pure substances and binary fluid mixtures within the framework of the van Konynenburg and Scott classification of the different types of phase behavior. The authors provide a clear and elegant graphical description of the changes in the binary mixture phase diagrams and the behavior of the critical lines from Type I to Type VI with changes in the size of the molecules and the nature of the molecular interactions and the energy asymmetries encountered. This chapter further provides a classification for ternary mixture phase diagrams that are based on the partial miscibility in one, two, or three of the binary pairs, which are graphically described in Gibb’s triangles. Multicomponent systems are also discussed in terms of pseudocomponents that are used to represent similar molecules. Chapter 4 is devoted to thermodynamic models and provides guidelines for selecting the appropriate model from among the various options, ranging from cubic equations of state to SAFT (Statistical Associating Fluid Theory) for different scenarios which are accomplished by using real case studies for separations of different levels of complexity. A comprehensive treatment of a methodology for general phase equilibrium calculations and generation of phase diagrams is provided in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 shifts the focus to engineering and provides a practical perspective on how the fundamental thermodynamics and phase equilibrium calculations and predictions are used in addressing complex separation processes using several case studies such as the supercritical biodiesel production process. These are continued in Chapter 7 by demonstrating how phase equilibrium engineering comes into play in distillation processes by an elegant description that makes the connections to the Type I to Type VI phase descriptions. The ethylene plant recovery section is used as a case study. In Chapter 8, discussions are extended to azeotropic mixtures and to the synthesis of solvents by computer-aided molecular design (MOLDES) to break up the azeotropes. As case studies, solvent design for recovery of aromatic fractions of reforming naphtha and high-pressure azeotropic separation of ethaneþCO2 mixtures by extractive distillation using n-butane as solvent are presented. Chapter 9 is devoted to green processes and high-pressure supercritical fluid solvents. Solvent tuning for systems displaying Type V (propaneþvegetable oil) and Type III (carbon dioxideþnatural oil) phase behavior are discussed in detail. Chapter 10 continues the discussions on the use of supercritical fluids in high-pressure fractionation and extraction of natural oils using orange oil deterpenation as a case study. Chapter 11 is devoted to reactive systems and supercritical reactors, and the phase behavior of reactive mixtures and solvents. Solvent selection strategies are discussed according to the reaction pathway using case studies such as selective hydrogenation of fatty acid methyl esters or hydrogenation of vegetable oils. Feasible or unfeasible operational regions are discussed in terms of the prevailing phase diagrams. Finally, Chapter 12 discusses how phase equilibrium engineering is used in the conceptual process design using production of biodiesel via transesterification of vegetable oil with methanol and alcohol extraction and dehydration as examples. I trust you will find this volume with its application-oriented engineering approach to be of great value and interest.Fil: Brignole, Esteban Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química; ArgentinaFil: Pereda, Selva. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química; Argentin