1,211 research outputs found
Continuous production of KNO3 nanosalts for the fertilization of soil by means of a Spinning Disk Reactor
In this study the production of high soluble material
nanoparticles was successfully performed by means of a
spinning disk reactor (SDR). This result was possible due
to the use of a potassium nitrate saturated solution, which
was continuously recycled back to the reactor after
removal of the produced solid nanoparticles.
Several process configurations were checked. It appears to
be mandatory that the recycled saturated solution must be
free of residual nanoparticles since their presence would
lead to heterogeneous nucleation. In this respect, a small
amount of nitric acid was added to the stream to permit the
residual nanoparticle dissolution. Moreover, a spiral
wounded piping system was developed in order to increase
both the contact time and the mixing condition of the
saturated solution with the added acid before entering the
SD
About the limits of microfiltration for the purification of wastewaters
In the past, microfiltration was widely used as a
pretreatment step for wastewater stream purification
purposes. Experiences performed during the last years
shows that microfiltration fails to maintain its
performances for longer period of times. Many case studies
demonstrate that the adoption of microfiltration leads to
the failure of the overall process; the severe fouling of the
microfiltration membranes leads to high operating costs
with the consequence to make the treatment of the
wastewater economically unfeasible. The boundary flux
concept is a profitable tool to analyze fouling issues in
membrane processes. The boundary flux value separates an
operating region characterized by reversible fouling
formation from irreversible one. Boundary flux values are
not content, but function of time, as calculated by the subboundary
fouling rate value. The knowledge of both
parameters may fully describe the membrane performances
in sub-boundary operating regimes. Many times, for
wastewater purification purposes, ultrafiltration
membranes appear to be suits better to the needs, even they
exhibit lower permeate fluxes compared to microfiltration.
Key to this choice is that ultrafiltration appears to resist
better to fouling issues, with a limited reduction of the
performances as a function of time. In other words, it
appears that ultrafiltration exhibit higher boundary flux
values and lower sub-boundary fouling rates. In this work,
after a brief introduction to the boundary flux concept, for
many different wastewater streams (more than 20,
produced by the most relevant industries in food,
agriculture, manufacture, pharmaceutics), the boundary
flux and sub-boundary fouling rate values of different
microfiltration and ultrafiltration membranes will be
discussed and compared. The possibility to successfully
use microfiltration as a pretreatment step strongly depends
on the feedstock characteristics and, in detail, on the
particle size of the suspended matter. In most cases,
microfiltration demonstrates to be technically unsuitable
for pretreatment purposes of many wastewater streams; as
a consequence, the adoption of microfiltration pushes
operators to exceed boundary flux conditions, therefore
triggering severe fouling, that leads to economic
unfeasibility of the process in long terms
Chromium recovery by membranes for process reuse in the tannery industry
Leather tanning is a wide common industry all over the
world. In leather processing, water is one of the most
important medium, almost 40-45 L water kg-1 raw-hide or
skin is used by tanneries for processing finished leathers.
The composition of tannery wastewater presents
considerable dissimilarities in the concentration range of
pollutants both of inorganic (chlorides, with concentration
ranging from several hundred to over 10,000 mg L-1 Clâ;
sulphate (VI), ammonium ions and sulphide ions,
exhibiting concentration that ranges from tens to several
hundred mg L-1) and organic (the COD value is usually
several thousand mg L-1 O2). Throughout the years, many
conventional processes have been carried out to treat
wastewater from tannery industry: unfortunately, in this
case, biological treatment methods give rise to an
excessive production of sludge, whereas physical and
chemical methods are too expensive in terms of energy and
reagent costs. In this work, a membrane process based on
NF membrane modules was adopted to treat the tannery
feedstock after primary conventional treatment. In a first
step, the determination of all boundary flux parameters, in
order to inhibit severe fouling formation during operation,
were performed. After this, experimental work was carried
out to validate the approach. The target of water
purification was reached, that is the legal discharge to
municipal sewer system in Italy of 90% of the initial
wastewater stream volume. This allows having an
immediate cost saving of 21%. Moreover, the developed
process leads to a second benefit, that is the production of
5% of the initial volume as a highly chromium-rich
concentrate at no cost suitable to tannery process recycle
and reuse. In this case, cost saving rates exceeds 40%. At
the end, scale-up of the investigated process will be
discussed from technical and economic point of view
Recurring Sacral Stress Fractures in the Male Distance Runner
Reccurring Sacral Stress Fractures in the Male Distance Runner Waugh TJ, Stoller GL, Brooks EK, Dailey SW: Miami University Oxford, Ohio Background: A twenty year old male collegiate distance runner (170 cm and 62 kg) complained of low back pain in March 2015. The patient reported right sided low back tightness that felt like a bad spasm traveling from the lower back down into the lower leg. History of this runner revealed a non-displaced stress fracture in the left sacral ala with a stress reaction on the right sacral ala in November 2013. In April 2014, the distance runner possessed yet another sacral stress fracture. In March 2015, an assessment was made that the patient presented an acute case of piriformis syndrome due to lack of athletic participation. As two weeks went by with no positive results through rehabilitation, worsening pain, and given the pre-existing conditions of the patient, the Team Physician ordered an MRI. Differential Diagnosis: It is possible that the runner could have had an acute disc herniation, muscle strain, degenerative disc disease, or spondylolisthesis. A vertebral compression fracture, sacroiliac joint dysfunction, lumbar facet arthropathy, and sciatica are all differential diagnoses that the clinicians in this case needed to be aware of. It is also important to assess the possibilities of a lumbosacral strain and a sacroiliac joint sprain. Treatment: The MRI report revealed a high grade stress reaction in the right sacral ala. A non-displaced stress fracture in the right superior portion of the left sacral ala was also discovered. The patient was told to rest without any exercise for four to six weeks. After the stress fracture was resolved, the athlete has been encouraged not to participate in any repeated load-bearing types of activities until the source of the problem has been identified. Uniqueness: There is an uncommon nature of sacral stress fractures in males. It is important to realize that individuals who are constantly participating in repeating load-bearing activities are more prone to sacral stress fractures. Sacral stress fractures normally present themselves in women who have the female athlete triad. Research has shown that the influence of energy balance and hormonal fluctuations are significant factors associated with injuries in amenorrheic female athletes. The testosterone levels in young men normally lead to healthy and strong bones. This case report is a prime example that has the potential to teach clinicians all over to always look at the big picture and keep in mind all of the possible differential diagnoses. Conclusions: Physician's have hypothesized that the calcium level in this patient is too high which is causing parathyroid levels to decrease, resulting in low bone density. Since calcium and the parathyroid hormone have an inverse relationship, moderation between the two is essential. However, if one is too high, the other is too low decreasing bone density. Another hypothesis is that low testosterone levels in the patient are causing low bone density. This rare case is far from over as there is numerous investigative work to still be done. Clinical Application: Correctly diagnosing a sacral stress fracture is very difficult due to the wide range of differential diagnoses that its symptoms can present. Clinicians should never rule out the possibility of a sacral stress fracture when clients present low back pain, diffuse buttocks pain, and a history of repetitive loading actively. Although the clinicians in this case did not originally think this injury was another sacral stress fracture, they never ruled out the possibility due to the patient's described pain and pre-existing conditions. The clinicians in this report considered all possible diagnoses before making an assessment. Further research still needs to be performed in order to provide the most effective treatment and outcomes for future patients. Word Count: 59
Tree Buffers
In runtime verification, the central problem is to decide if a given program execution violates a given property. In online runtime verification, a monitor observes a programâs execution as it happens. If the program being observed has hard real-time constraints, then the monitor inherits them. In the presence of hard real-time constraints it becomes a challenge to maintain enough information to produce error traces, should a property violation be observed. In this paper we introduce a data structure, called tree buffer, that solves this problem in the context of automata-based monitors: If the monitor itself respects hard real-time constraints, then enriching it by tree buffers makes it possible to provide error traces, which are essential for diagnosing defects. We show that tree buffers are also useful in other application domains. For example, they can be used to implement functionality of capturing groups in regular expressions. We prove optimal asymptotic bounds for our data structure, and validate them using empirical data from two sources: regular expression searching through Wikipedia, and runtime verification of execution traces obtained from the DaCapo test suite
Transcriptional profiling of the ductus arteriosus: Comparison of rodent microarrays and human RNA sequencing
DA closure is crucial for the transition from fetal to neonatal life. This closure is supported by changes to the DAâs signaling and structural properties that distinguish it from neighboring vessels. Examining transcriptional differences between these vessels is key to identifying genes or pathways responsible for DA closure. Several microarray studies have explored the DA transcriptome in animal models but varied experimental designs have led to conflicting results. Thorough transcriptomic analysis of the human DA has yet to be performed. A clear picture of the DA transcriptome is key to guiding future research endeavors, both to allow more targeted treatments in the clinical setting, and to understand the basic biology of DA function. In this review, we use a cross-species cross-platform analysis to consider all available published rodent microarray data and novel human RNAseq data in order to provide high priority candidate genes for consideration in future DA studies
α1-Antitrypsin deficiency.
α1-Antitrypsin deficiency (A1ATD) is an inherited disorder caused by mutations in SERPINA1, leading to liver and lung disease. It is not a rare disorder but frequently goes underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or cryptogenic liver disease. The most frequent disease-associated mutations include the S allele and the Z allele of SERPINA1, which lead to the accumulation of misfolded α1-antitrypsin in hepatocytes, endoplasmic reticulum stress, low circulating levels of α1-antitrypsin and liver disease. Currently, there is no cure for severe liver disease and the only management option is liver transplantation when liver failure is life-threatening. A1ATD-associated lung disease predominately occurs in adults and is caused principally by inadequate protease inhibition. Treatment of A1ATD-associated lung disease includes standard therapies that are also used for the treatment of COPD, in addition to the use of augmentation therapy (that is, infusions of human plasma-derived, purified α1-antitrypsin). New therapies that target the misfolded α1-antitrypsin or attempt to correct the underlying genetic mutation are currently under development
The influence of transition metal solutes on dislocation core structure and values of Peierls stress and barrier in tungsten
Several transition metals were examined to evaluate their potential for
improving the ductility of tungsten. The dislocation core structure and Peierls
stress and barrier of screw dislocations in binary
tungsten-transition metal alloys (WTM) were investigated using
first principles electronic structure calculations. The periodic quadrupole
approach was applied to model the structure of dislocation. Alloying
with transition metals was modeled using the virtual crystal approximation and
the applicability of this approach was assessed by calculating the equilibrium
lattice parameter and elastic constants of the tungsten alloys. Reasonable
agreement was obtained with experimental data and with results obtained from
the conventional supercell approach. Increasing the concentration of a
transition metal from the VIIIA group, i.e. the elements in columns headed by
Fe, Co and Ni, leads to reduction of the elastic constant and
increase of elastic anisotropy A=. Alloying W with a group
VIIIA transition metal changes the structure of the dislocation core from
symmetric to asymmetric, similar to results obtained for WRe
alloys in the earlier work of Romaner {\it et al} (Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 195503
(2010))\comments{\cite{WRECORE}}. In addition to a change in the core symmetry,
the values of the Peierls stress and barrier are reduced. The latter effect
could lead to increased ductility in a tungsten-based
alloy\comments{\cite{WRECORE}}. Our results demonstrate that alloying with any
of the transition metals from the VIIIA group should have similar effect as
alloying with Re.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, 3 table
Ultrahigh Surface Area Three-Dimensional Porous Graphitic Carbon from Conjugated Polymeric Molecular Framework
Porous graphitic carbon is essential for many applications such as energy storage devices, catalysts, and sorbents. However, current graphitic carbons are limited by low conductivity, low surface area, and ineffective pore structure. Here we report a scalable synthesis of porous graphitic carbons using a conjugated polymeric molecular framework as precursor. The multivalent cross-linker and rigid conjugated framework help to maintain micro- and mesoporous structures, while promoting graphitization during carbonization and chemical activation. The above unique design results in a class of highly graphitic carbons at temperature as low as 800 ??C with record-high surface area (4073 m2 g-1), large pore volume (2.26 cm-3), and hierarchical pore architecture. Such carbons simultaneously exhibit electrical conductivity >3 times more than activated carbons, very high electrochemical activity at high mass loading, and high stability, as demonstrated by supercapacitors and lithium-sulfur batteries with excellent performance. Moreover, the synthesis can be readily tuned to make a broad range of graphitic carbons with desired structures and compositions for many applications.clos
Measurements of atmospheric layers from the NASA DC-8 and P-3B aircraft during PEM-Tropics A
Tropospheric vertical structure was analyzed using in situ measurements of Oâ, CO, CHâ, and HâO taken on board the NASA DC-8 aircraft during three Pacific Exploratory Missions (PEMs): PEM-West A, September-October 1991 in the western Pacific; PEM-West B, February-March 1994 in the western Pacific; and PEM-Tropics A, September-October 1996 in the central and eastern Pacific. PEM-Tropics A added measurements from the NASA P3-B aircraft. We used a new mode-based method to define a background against which to find layers. Using only Oâ and HâO, we found 472 layers in PEM-Tropics A (0.72 layers per vertical kilometer profiled), 237 layers in PEM-West A (0.54 layers/km), and 158 layers in PEM-West B (0.41 layers/km). Using all constituents, we found 187 layers in PEM-Tropics A (0.43 layers/km), 128 layers in PEM-West A (0.29 layers/km), and 80 layers in PEM-West B (0.21 layers/km). Stratospheric air, sometimes mixed with trapped pollution, was the dominant layer source in all three missions. The larger number of layers per kilometer in PEM-Tropics A was probably due to repeated profiling of several âsuperlayersâ visible in many of the mission lidar and potential voracity profiles. The thickness of the superlayers was of order 1 km, and the horizontal extent was of order 1000 km. We found that layers have an important effect on the thermal structure. An example based on ozonesonde data from Tahiti is shown, where a dry, subsiding layer was stabilized by much greater radiative cooling at the base than at the top. The stabilized layer can trap pollution and force vertical plumes to spread into horizontal layers.United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NAG1-1758)United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NAG1-1901
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