Use of principal component analysis to evaluate thermal properties and combustibility of coffee-pine wood briquettes

Submitted: February 1st, 2021 ; Accepted: March 30th, 2021 ; Published: May 21st, 2021 ; Correspondence: [email protected] coffee production chain is a potential source of residual biomass inherent to the high productivity that can contribute to the generation of value-added products. The residues from the coffee sector are typically disposed to landfill without treatment causing potential environmental inconveniences. Briquetting presents an alternative process to produce a uniform fuel with high energy density. Briquettes facilitates easy transportation, enables better handling and storage of biomass residues. Properties such as low equilibrium moisture content, high energy density and compressive strength were reported for different coffee-pine wood briquettes treatments. Moreover, understanding of the thermal properties of the briquettes during combustion is crucial to evaluate their final application. This research is the first study that investigates the combustibility properties and kinetic parameters of the thermal decomposition of briquettes from coffee-pine wood using differential and integral thermal analysis under non-isothermal conditions. Multivariate analysis of the collected parameters through principal components analysis (PCA), was implemented to reduce the dimensionality of the data. The desired profile in the combustibility is directly related to high temperatures and long burning times, thus, the tested briquettes displayed a significant combustibility potential, reporting peak temperatures and burnout times around 600 °C and 27 minutes, respectively. Activation energy kinetic parameter in the range of 12–42 kJ mol-1 and average reactivity of 0.14–0.22 min-1 , were also found. The results revealed the not thermally hard material to degrade when compared to biomasses typically used for combustion

Rapid tranquillisation for agitated patients in emergency psychiatric rooms: a randomised trial of midazolam versus haloperidol plus promethazine

OBJECTIVE: To compare two widely used drug treatments for people with aggression or agitation due to mental illness. DESIGN: Pragmatic, randomised clinical trial. SETTING: Three psychiatric emergency rooms in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. SUBJECTS: 301 aggressive or agitated people. INTERVENTIONS: Open treatment with intramuscular midazolam or intramuscular haloperidol plus promethazine. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Patients tranquil or sedated at 20 minutes. Secondary outcomes: patients tranquil or asleep by 40, 60, and 120 minutes; restrained or given extra drugs within 2 hours; severe adverse events; another episode of agitation or aggression; needing extra visits from doctor during first 24 hours; overall antipsychotic load in first 24 hours; and not discharged by two weeks

Distribution of environmental compartments of herbicides used in the cotton, coffee and citrus cultures

The aim of this paper was to evaluate the environmental fate of herbicides (acetochlor, 2,4-D, diuron, clomazone, thidiazuron, paraquat, simazine, fluazifo-p-butil, clethodim, oxufluorfen, flumioxazin, carfentrazone-ethyl, ametrina, trifluralin and MSMA) in cotton, coffee and citrus cultivation areas, applying the level I fugacity model. The methodology basically used the chemical and physical characteristics of the pesticides, environmental compartments and the fugacity equations. The preliminary evaluation of risk of contamination due to the use of these pesticides on the cultures studied was carried out swiftly, based on the chemical and physical properties of these products as the level I fugacity model was applied. For most of the herbicides evaluated, the water compartment was the most vulnerable. The prediction evaluation study using fugacity level I was found to be a relevant tool for the environmental fate of the herbicides studied for cotton, coffee and citrus cultures.O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o destino ambiental dos herbicidas acetochlor, 2,4-D, diuron, clomazone, thidiazuron, paraquat, simazine, fluazifop-p-butil, clethodim, oxyfluorfen, flumioxazin, carfentrazone-ethyl, ametrina, trifluralin e MSMA em áreas de cultivo de algodão, café e citros, utilizando o modelo de fugacidade nível I. Na metodologia foram utilizadas basicamente as características físico-químicas dos herbicidas, os compartimentos ambientais e as equações de fugacidade. A avaliação preliminar do risco de contaminação pelo uso de herbicidas nas culturas de algodão, café e citros pode ser feita de forma expedita a partir das propriedades físico-químicas desses produtos, aplicando o modelo de fugacidade nível I. Para a maioria dos herbicidas avaliados, o compartimento água foi o mais vulnerável. O estudo de avaliação da predição em que se empregou o nível de fugacidade I demonstrou ser uma ferramenta importante no destino ambiental dos herbicidas estudados para as culturas de algodão, café e citros.12313

Underwater energy harvesting to extend operation time of submersible sensors

A linear electromagnetic energy harvesting device for underwater applications, fabricated with a simple manufacturing process, was developed to operate with movement frequencies from 0.1 to 0.4 Hz. The generator has two coils, and the effect of the combination of the two coils was investigated. The experimental study has shown that the energy capture system was able to supply energy to several ocean sensors, producing 7.77 mJ per second with wave movements at 0.4 Hz. This study shows that this energy is enough to restore the energy used by the battery or the capacitor and continue supplying energy to the sensors used in the experimental work. For an ocean wave frequency of 0.4 Hz, the generator can supply power to 8 sensors or 48 sensors, depending on the energy consumed and its optimization.This work is co-funded by the project K2D-Knowledge and Data from the Deep to Space with reference POCI-01-0247-FEDER-045941, co-financed by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), through the Operational Program for Competitiveness and Internationalization (COMPETE2020) and by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology-FCT under MIT-Portugal Program. This work is also co-financed by Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (NORTE2020), through Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER), Project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER000032–NextSea, and by national funds through FCT–Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, I.P. under project SONDA (PTDC/EME-SIS/1960/2020)

The usefulness of serum adenosine deaminase 2 (ADA2) activity in adults for the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis

AbstractRapid diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis remains an obstacle for therapy of tuberculosis (TB). Adenosine deaminase isoform 2 (ADA2) is produced by activated macrophages and has been used for diagnosis of TB from extra-pulmonary sites. However, few studies adequately address whether serum ADA2 activity is useful for diagnosis of active pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB). We prospectively measured serum ADA2 activity in 110 patients with pulmonary disease (65 cases with active PTB and 45 cases with other respiratory diseases) and 78 healthy volunteers (eight with tuberculin skin test positive). The serum ADA2 for the diagnosis of PTB had the sensitivity of 36·9%, the specificity of 84·5%, the positive predictive value of 10·9% and the negative predictive value of 96·2%. We concluded that serum ADA2 activity is neither useful to diagnosis of active PTB nor to differentiate from other respiratory diseases

Systematical study of the optical potential for systems like A+ 58Ni from sub-barrier data analyses

Elastic scattering differential cross sections were measured for the 28Si158Ni system at sub-barrier energies. The corresponding nuclear potential was compared with earlier results of systems like A158Ni. The present data also allowed the determination of the 28Si nuclear density through an unfolding method. The experimentally extracted 28Si density values are compared with those previously obtained for the 4,6He, 12C, 16,18O nuclei. We present a critical discussion of the absolute precision obtained for the density parameters extracted from the data analyses

Wave profile and tide monitoring system for scalable implementation

Apresentação de Poster em conferência Nacional.Presentation of a wave profile and tide monitoring system, with low-cost and low-power pressure sensors connected to a datalogger in a wired or acustic network

Global and consistent analysis of the heavy-ion elastic scattering and fusion processes

We have developed a model for the nuclear interaction which is based on the effects of the Pauli nonlocality. In earlier works, we have successfully used this interaction to describe the elastic scattering for several systems in a very wide energy range. In the present work, we have checked the validity of the same interaction in the description of about 2500 fusion cross section data for 165 different systems. By introducing only one energyand system-independent effective parameter, the nonlocal model describes the global behavior of the fusion process with good precision

Antimycobacterial And Cytotoxicity Activities Of Free And Liposome-encapsulated 3-(4'-bromo[1,1'-biphenyl-4-yl)-3-(4-bromo-phenyl)-n,n- Dimethyl-2-propen-1-amine

The antimycobacterial activity of 3-(4'-bromo[1,1'-biphenyl-4-yl)-3-(4- bromo-phenyl)-N,N-dimethyl-2-propen-1-amine (BBAP), free or incorporated in preformed liposomes, on extracellular M. tuberculosis H37Rv was 8 and 25 μM (MIC), respectively. Extracellular antimycobacterial activity was not significantly improved by entrapment of BBAP in liposomes, but there was a 6.1-fold reduction of BBAP cytotoxicity on J774 macrophages. Liposomal BBAP or its free form showed IC50 values of 165 and 27 μM, resulting in a selectivity index (SI=IC50/MIC) of 3.4 and 6.6, respectively. Free BBAP in concentrations from 10 to 80 μM were quite effective in eliminating intracellular M. tuberculosis while liposomal formulation was less effective at these concentrations.334871874Corbett, E.L., Watt, C.J., Walker, N., Mayer, D.B.M., Willians, B.G., Raviglione, M.C., Dye, C., (2003) Arch. Intern. Med., 163, p. 1009Vynnycky, E., Fine, P.E., (1997) Epidemiol. Infec., 119, p. 183Pandey, R., Khuller, G.K., (2005) J. Antimicrob. Chemother., 55, p. 430De Souza, A.O., Aily D., C.G., Sato, D.N., Durán, N., (1998) J. Antimicrob. Chemother., 42, p. 407De Souza, A.O., Junior, R.R.S., Ferreira-Julio, J.F., Rodriguez, J.A., Melo, P.S., Haun, M., Sato, D.N., Durán, N., (2001) Eur. J. Med. Chem., 36, p. 843De Souza, A.O., Pereira, D.G., Durán, N., (2002) Ann. Rev. Biomed. Sci., 4, p. 53De Souza, A.O., Hemerly, F.P., Busollo, A.C., Melo, P.S., Machado, G.M.C., Miranda, C.C., Santa-Rita, R.M., Durán, N., (2002) J. Antimicrob. Chemother., 50, p. 629De Souza, A.O., Santos, R.R., Sato, D.N., De Azevedo, M.M.M., Ferreira, D.A., Melo, P.S., Haun, M., Durán, N., (2004) J. Braz. Chem. Soc., 15, p. 682De Souza, A.O., Alderete, J.B., Faljoni-Alario, A., Silva, C.L., Durán, N., (2005) J. Chil. Chem. Soc., 50, p. 591De Conti, R., Gimenez, S.M.M., Haun, M., Pilli, R.A., De Castro, S.L., Durán, N., (1996) Eur. J. Med. Chem., 31, p. 915Bangham, A.D., Standish, M.M., Watkins, J.C., (1965) J. Mol. Biol., 13, p. 238Chen, P.S., Toribara, T.Y., Warner, H., (1956) Anal. Chem., 28, p. 1756Oh, Y.K., Nix, D.E., Straubinger, R.M., (1995) Antimicrob. Agents Chemother., 39, p. 2104Collins, L.A., Franzblau, S.G., (1997) Antimicrob. Agents Chemother., 41, p. 1004Denizot, F., Lang, R., (1986) J. Immun. Methods, 89, p. 27