Special Issue “Machine Learning in Insurance”

Learning in Insurance”, which represents a compilation of ten high-quality articles discussing avant-garde developments or introducing new theoretical or practical advances in this field

Enhancing the Electrocatalytic Activity of Redox Stable Perovskite Fuel Electrodes in Solid Oxide Cells by Atomic Layer-Deposited Pt Nanoparticles

The carbon dioxide and steam co-electrolysis in solid oxide cells offers an efficient way to store the intermittent renewable electricity in the form of syngas (CO + H2), which constitutes a key intermediate for the chemical industry. The co-electrolysis process, however, is challenging in terms of materials selection. The cell composites, and particularly the fuel electrode, are required to exhibit adequate stability in redox environments and coking that rules out the conventional Ni cermets. La0.75Sr0.25Cr0.5Mn0.5O3 (LSCrM) perovskite oxides represent a promising alternative solution, but with electrocatalytic activity inferior to the conventional Ni-based cermets. Here, we report on how the electrochemical properties of a state-of-the-art LSCrM electrode can be significantly enhanced by introducing uniformly distributed Pt nanoparticles (18 nm) on its surface via the atomic layer deposition (ALD). At 850 °C, Pt nanoparticle deposition resulted in a ∼62% increase of the syngas production rate during electrolysis mode (at 1.5 V), whereas the power output was improved by ∼84% at fuel cell mode. Our results exemplify how the powerful ALD approach can be employed to uniformly disperse small amounts (∼50 μg·cm–2) of highly active metals to boost the limited electrocatalytic properties of redox stable perovskite fuel electrodes with efficient material utilization.</p

Effect of fuel thermal pretreament on the electrochemical performance of a direct lignite coal fuel cell

Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Solid State Ionics SSI-20The impact of fuel heat pretreatment on the performance of a direct carbon fuel cell (DCFC) is investigated by utilizing lignite (LG) coal as feedstock in a solid oxide fuel cell of the type: lignite | Co–CeO2/YSZ/Ag | air. Four LG samples are employed as feedstock: (i) pristine lignite (LG), and differently heat treated LG samples under inert (He) atmosphere at (ii) 200 °C overnight (LG200), (iii) 500 °C for 1 h (LG500) and (iv) 800 °C for 1 h (LG800). The impact of several process parameters, related to cell temperature (700–800 °C), carrier gas type (He or CO2), and molten carbonate infusion into the feedstock on the DCFC performance is additionally explored. The proximate and ultimate analysis of the original and pretreated lignite samples show that upon increasing the heat treatment temperature the carbon content is monotonically increased, whereas the volatile matter, moisture, sulfur and oxygen contents are decreased. In addition, although volatiles are eliminated upon increasing the treatment temperature and as a consequence more ordered carbonaceous structure remained, the heat treatment increases the reactivity of lignite with CO2 due mainly to the increased carbon content. These modifications are reflected on the achieved DCFC performance, which is clearly improved upon increasing the treatment temperature. An inferior cell performance is demonstrated by utilizing inert He instead of reactive CO2 atmosphere, as purging gas in the anode compartment, while carbonate infusion always results in ca. 70–100% increase in power output (15.1 mW cm− 2 at 800 °C). The obtained findings are discussed based also on AC impedance spectroscopy measurements, which revealed the impact of LG physicochemical characteristics and DCFC operating parameters on both ohmic and electrode resistances.The authors would like to acknowledge financial support from the European project “Efficient Conversion of Coal to Electricity — Direct Coal Fuel Cells”, which is funded by the Research Fund for Carbon & Steel (RFCR CT-2011-00004).Peer reviewe

An Evaluation of the Anti-Carcinogenic Response of Major Isothiocyanates in Non-Metastatic and Metastatic Melanoma Cells

Malignant melanoma is one of the most deadly types of solid cancers, a property mainly attributed to its highly aggressive metastatic form. On the other hand, different classes of isothiocy- anates, a class of phytochemicals, present in cruciferous vegetables have been characterized by considerable anti-cancer activity in both in vitro and in vivo experimental models. In the current study, we investigated the anti-cancer response of five isothiocyanates in an in vitro model of melanoma consisting of non-metastatic (A375, B16F-10) and metastatic (VMM1, Hs294T) malignant melanoma as well as non-melanoma epidermoid carcinoma (A431) and non-tumorigenic melanocyte-neighboring keratinocyte (HaCaT) cells. Our aim was to compare different endpoints of cytotoxicity (e.g., reactive oxygen species, intracellular glutathione content, cell cycle growth arrest, apoptosis and necrosis) descriptive of an anti-cancer response between non-metastatic and metastatic melanoma as well as non-melanoma epidermoid carcinoma and non-tumorigenic cells. Our results showed that exposure to isothiocyanates induced an increase in intracellular reactive oxygen species and glutathione contents between non-metastatic and metastatic melanoma cells. The distribution of cell cycle phases followed a similar pattern in a manner where non-metastatic and metastatic melanoma cells appeared to be growth arrested at the G2/M phase while elevated levels of metastatic melanoma cells were shown to be at sub G1 phase, an indicator of necrotic cell death. Finally, metastatic melanoma cells were more sensitive apoptosis and/or necrosis as higher levels were observed compared to non-melanoma epidermoid carcinoma and non-tumorigenic cells. In general, non-mela- noma epidermoid carcinoma and non-tumorigenic cells were more resistant under any experimental exposure condition. Overall, our study provides further evidence for the potential development of isothiocyanates as promising anti-cancer against non-metastic and metastatic melanoma cells, a property specific for these cells and not shared by non-melanoma epidermoid carcinoma or non-tumorigenic melanocyte cells