Sustainable CO2 adsorbents prepared by coating chitosan onto mesoporous silicas for large-scale carbon capture technology

In this article, we report a new sustainable synthesis procedure for manufacturing chitosan/silica CO2 adsorbents. Chitosan is a naturally abundant material and contains amine functionality, which is essential for selective CO2 adsorptions. It is, therefore, ideally suited for manufacturing CO2 adsorbents on a large scale. By coating chitosan onto high-surface-area mesoporous silica supports, including commercial fumed silica (an economical and accessible reagent) and synthetic SBA-15 and MCF silicas, we have prepared a new family of CO2 adsorbents, which have been fully characterised with nitrogen adsorption isotherms, thermogravimetric analysis/differential scanning calorimetry, TEM, FTIR spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. These adsorbents have achieved a significant CO2 adsorption capacity of up to 0.98 mmol g−1 at ambient conditions (P=1 atm and T=25 °C). The materials can also be fully regenerated/recycled on demand at temperatures as low as 75 °C with a >85 % retention of the adsorption capacity after 4 cycles, which makes them promising candidates for advanced CO2 capture, storage and utilisation technology

Range Queries on Uncertain Data

Given a set $P$ of $n$ uncertain points on the real line, each represented by its one-dimensional probability density function, we consider the problem of building data structures on $P$ to answer range queries of the following three types for any query interval $I$: (1) top-$1$ query: find the point in $P$ that lies in $I$ with the highest probability, (2) top-$k$ query: given any integer $k\leq n$ as part of the query, return the $k$ points in $P$ that lie in $I$ with the highest probabilities, and (3) threshold query: given any threshold $\tau$ as part of the query, return all points of $P$ that lie in $I$ with probabilities at least $\tau$. We present data structures for these range queries with linear or nearly linear space and efficient query time.Comment: 26 pages. A preliminary version of this paper appeared in ISAAC 2014. In this full version, we also present solutions to the most general case of the problem (i.e., the histogram bounded case), which were left as open problems in the preliminary versio

Assessment of orthopedic treatment of class III malocclusion Using P.A.R. index

published_or_final_versio

Music, Identity, and Community

This chapter discusses the role of music in the imagination of self, community, and nation. It includes topics such as Tibetan pop music, ‘anti-extremism’ campaigns in Xinjiang, Cantopop in Hong Kong, and contemporary revivals of ‘red songs’

On the linearity of the stratospheric and Euro-Atlantic sector response to ENSO

The dependence of the winter stratospheric and Euro-Atlantic climate response on ENSO amplitude is investigated using the HadGEM3 model. Experiments are performed with imposed east Pacific sea surface temperature perturbations corresponding to Niño-3.4 anomalies of 60.75, 1.5, 2.25, and 3.0 K. In the North Pacific, El Niño (EN) deepens and shifts the Aleutian low eastward, while the equivalent magnitude La Niña (LN) perturbations drive anomalies of opposite sign that are around 4 times weaker. The muted North Pacific response to LN can be traced back to the weaker response of tropical convection and the associated anomalous Rossby wave source. The EN perturbations weaken the Arctic polar vortex, with the winter mean zonal mean zonal wind at 608N and 10 hPa decreasing approximately linearly with Niño-3.4 anomaly by around 23.6 m s21 K21 . For the strongest EN case (13 K), the frequency of sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs) increases by ;60% compared to the control experiment. Hence the results do not support a saturation of the stratospheric pathway for strong EN as suggested in previous literature. The equivalent amplitude LN perturbations cause a weak strengthening of the polar vortex and no substantial change in SSW frequency, in contrast to some reanalysis-based studies. EN induces a negative North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index throughout boreal winter, which increases approximately linearly with the Niño-3.4 anomaly by around 20.6 standard deviations K21 . Only the response to the strongest LN perturbations projects onto a weak positive NAO in November, suggesting that the mechanism for the Euro-Atlantic response to LN may be distinct from EN

Growth changes after maxillary protraction in class III patients

published_or_final_versio

Cephalometric comparisons of Chinese and Caucasian surgical class III patients

published_or_final_versio

Effective age for application of orthopedic maxillary protraction

Abstract no. 1374published_or_final_versio