HYDROCARBONS REMOVAL FROM BILGE WATER BY ADSORPTION ONTO ACTIVATED BIOCHAR FROM POSIDONIA OCEANICA

The normal operations carried out on the boats during navigation generate waste waters such as oily bilge water. The latter is the aqueous mixture of potential pollutants of different origins and types: oily fluids, lubricants and greases, cleaning fluids and other wastes that accumulate in the lower part of the vessel [1,2]. The current legislation provides that they can be discharge directly into the sea if the concentrations of some components are below the expected limits. In particular, with regard to oil / hydrocarbons contamination, the current regulatory limit is 15 mg L-1 of total hydrocarbons. The present work starts from a public/private partnership funded by a grant of the Ministry of Economic Development (MiSE). Among the aims of the project, novel methods shall be tested for the reduction of hydrocarbons concentration at values below 5 mg L-1. Moreover, instrumental techniques able to quickly measure the required low hydrocarbons concentration were tested. Among the different steps of bilge water treatment in pilot plant (coagulation, flotation, centrifugation, adsorption etc.), the latter requires the use of adsorbent materials able to reduce the oily concentration below the legal limits. Here we have hosen, optimized and tested materials obtained from bio-oil production waste, a biochar obtained by pyrolysis of Posidonia oceanica, a marine plant widespread in the Mediterranean sea. means of acid or alkali treatments. Moreover, a commercial activated carbon (Filtrasorb 400) has been used for comparison purpose. Synthetic bilge waters were prepared following the reference standards [3] for the preparation of test fluids (used to test the bilge separator plant), containing DMA (distillate marine fuel) and SLS (sodium lauryl sulfate). Batch adsorption isotherms were carried out without ionic medium and at different ionic strengths in NaCl in order to evaluate the effect of salinity on the adsorption ability of dsorbent materials. The same adsorbents were tested by column experiments. In particular, a bench pilot system was built (Figure 1.) and breakthrough curves were obtained changing amount of adsorbent material in column, flow rate, initial DMA and surfactant concentrations. Several instrumental techniques (turbidimetry, TOC, HPLC-QQQ and HPLC-FLD) have been used to measure surfactant and hydrocarbon concentrations in experimental samples. The batch experimental data were fitted with the most used isotherm models (Langmuir, Freundlich, Sips) and important considerations were made on the breakthrough curves of column experiments

Long-Term Stability of TiS2–Alkylamine Hybrid Materials

Layered TiS2 intercalated with linear alkylamines has recently attracted significant interest as a model compound for flexible n-type thermoelectric applications, showing remarkably high power factors at room temperature. The thermal and, particularly, environmental stability of such materials is, however, a still an open challenge. In this paper, we show that amine-intercalated TiS2 prepared by a simple mechanochemical process is prone to chemical decomposition through sulfur exsolution, and that the presence of molecular oxygen is likely to mediate the decomposition reaction. Through computational analysis of the possible reaction pathways, we propose that Ti-N adducts are formed as a consequence of amine groups substituting for S vacancies on the internal surfaces of the S-Ti-S layers. These findings provide insights for possible future applications of similar hybrid compounds as devices operating in ambient conditions, and suggest isolating them from atmospheric oxygen

Grasping and releasing agarose micro beads in water drops

The micromanipulation of micro objects is nowadays the focus of several investigations, specially in biomedical applications. Therefore, some manipulation tasks are required to be in aqueous environment and become more challenging because they depend upon observation and actuation methods that are compatible with MEMS Technology based micromanipulators. This paper describes how three grasping-releasing based tasks have been successfully applied to agarose micro beads whose average size is about 60 \u3bcm: (i) the extraction of a single micro bead from a water drop; (ii) the insertion of a single micro bead into the drop; (iii) the grasping of a single micro bead inside the drop. The success of the performed tasks rely on the use of a microgripper previously designed, fabricated, and tested

GPM-DPR Observations on TGFs Producing Storms

Unique spaceborne measurements of the three-dimensional structure of convective clouds producing terrestrial gamma ray flashes (TGFs) were performed using both active and passive microwave sensors on board the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM)-Core Observatory satellite, finding coherent features for nine TGF-producing storms. The delineation of cloud structure using the radar reflectivity factor shows convective cells with significant vertical development and thick layers with high ice content. Compared to other cumulonimbus clouds in the tropics, the TGFs counterparts have higher reflectivity values above 3 and 8 km altitude showing in all cases a cumulonimbus tower and the TGFs locations are very close, or coincident, to these high Z columns, where reflectivity exceeds 50dBz. Using the GPM Microwave Imager radiometer, most thunderstorms show a very strong depression of polarization corrected temperature (PCT) at channel 89GHz, indicating a strong scattering signal by ice in the upper cloud layers. At channel 166GHZ, the difference between vertical and horizontal brightness temperature signal always returns positive values, from 0.2 up to 13.7K indicating a complex structure with randomly/vertically oriented ice particles. The PCT was used to characterize the analyzed storms in terms of hydrometeor types, confirming in 7/9 cases a high likelihood of hail/graupel presence. To perform analysis on the TGFs parent flashes, radio atmospherics data from the Earth Networks Total Lightning Network lightning network were used. Waveform data indicate that all cases are intra-cloud events and TGFs typically take place during the peak of flash rate production. Finally, the analysis of the most intense event is shown

Registros de ocorrência e novos hospedeiros de Gargaphia lunulata (Mayr) (Hemiptera: Tingidae) nos estados do Acre e Paraná.

Foi observada a ocorrência de colônias do percevejo-de-renda Gargaphia lunulata (Mayr) (Hemiptera: Tingidae) em folhas de quatro plantas hospedeiras: arruda (Ruta graveolens L.) e feijão-de-porco (Canavalia ensiformis (L.) DC), em jardim residencial urbano, no Município de Rio Branco, AC e crotalária, Crotalaria spectabilis Roth, feijão-de-porco e quiabeiro (Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench), em casa de vegetação, no Município de Londrina, PR. As colônias encontravam-se exclusivamente na face abaxial das folhas, causando clorose, murchamento e senescência precoce das mesmas. Pelo fato de G. lunulata ser considerada uma importante praga do maracujazeiro no Brasil, o plantio das espécies vegetais citadas, em consórcio ou próximas a cultivos de maracujá, não seria recomendado, pois poderiam servir como fonte de inóculo à cultura do maracujazeiro. Faz-se, portanto, o primeiro registro da ocorrência de G. lunulata associada à arruda e feijão-de-porco no estado do Acre e C. spectabilis, feijão-de-porco e quiabeiro, no estado do Paraná. Ademais, o presente trabalho faz o primeiro relato de ocorrência desse tingídeo para os estados do Acre e Paraná e relata dois novos hospedeiros para esse inseto, R. graveolens e C. spectabillis no Brasil

Role of serum-free light chain assay for defining response and progression in immunoglobulin secretory multiple myeloma

The International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG) guidelines recommend using electrophoresis and immunofixation to define response and progressive disease (PD) in immunoglobulin (Ig) secretory multiple myeloma (Ig-MM), whereas the role of serum-free light chain (sFLC) is controversial. We retrospectively analyzed the value of adding sFLC assays in the definition of response and PD according to IMWG criteria in 339 Ig-MM patients treated with a first-line novel agent-based therapy (median follow-up 54 months). sFLC PD was defined according to conventional criteria plus increased sFLC levels, or sFLC escape (sFLCe); progression/sFLCe-free survival (ePFS) was the time from the start of treatment to the date of first PD or sFLCe, or death; overall survival after PD/sFLCe (OS after Pe) was the time from first PD or sFLCe to the date of death. 148 (44%) patients achieved a complete response and 198 (60%) a normal sFLC ratio (sFLCR). sFLCR normalization was an independent prognostic factor for extended PFS (HR = 0.46, p = 0.001) and OS (HR = 0.47, p = 0.006) by multivariable analysis. 175 (52%) patients experienced PD according to the IMWG criteria, whereas 180 (53%) experienced PD or sFLCe. Overall, a sFLCe was observed in 31 (9%) patients. Median PFS and ePFS were both equal to 36 (95% CI = 32–42, and 32–40, respectively) months. sFLC PD adversely affected the OS after Pe compared to PD with increasing monoclonal Ig only (HR = 0.52, p = 0.012). Our results support the inclusion of the sFLC assay for defining response and PD in Ig-MM

A Novel Wide-Band Reflection-Based System for Measuring Abdominal Fat in Humans

A Wide-Band (WB) radio frequency (RF) system has been thoroughly developed in order to measure the Subcutaneous Fat (SF) thickness in the abdominal region of humans. Recent conducted research has shown that the SF thickness is related to the thickness of internal fat called Visceral Fat (VF), which has important health implications, and therefore cannot be measured accurately by non-invasive techniques. Thus, this proposed non-invasive RF system offers the possibility of measuring the SF thickness and then estimating the VF thickness. The investigation details work carried out to optimise the penetration depth and the range resolution. These considerations resulted in a Gaussian pulse with a 1.45 GHz centre frequency and 462 MHz bandwidth being selected for the system. This has been implemented using an accurately designed compact antenna based on double-ridged horn (DRH) inside a high-permittivity material, which has been designed using the CST Microwave Studio (MWS) software. The employed abdominal model consisted of three layers: skin; fat, and muscle. The WB pulse has been directed at the model, and the reflections recorded for several SF thicknesses, including an infinitely thick layer, which provided the reference system pulse to compare the other cases with. This successfully demonstrated the principles of the system operation, with SF thickness of 10 to 30 mm being accurately measured, based on amplitude variations and also time shifting, in the proposed RF system

On the High‐Energy Spectral Component and Fine Time Structure of Terrestrial Gamma Ray Flashes

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