Workshop on U.S.-Hungarian Research Collaboration to Address IT Challenges for 21st Century Society

This collaborative grant workshop lays a foundation for building joint US-Hungarian research projects. The proposed set of activities is an outgrowth of ongoing discussions between NSF program managers and Hungarian Research Scientists visiting NSF in the Fall of 2002. These discussions culminated in Hungarian researchers attending and participating in the annual meeting of digital government PI\u27s and their government agency partners in May 2003 (dgo2003). Two US researchers who organized an International Digital Government Research Collaborations panel at dgo2003, in discussion with the Hungarian participants, accepted an invitation by the Hungarians to organize a small group of US researchers to meet in Hungary later in the year. This is a natural step that enables collaborations within the following domains:1. E-government research2. Information society technologies3. Information society studies, social informatics, research on information issue

Dependability of Referees’ Decision Making on Discretionary Penalties in the NFL

This paper predicts the possibilities of specific penalty types occurring, using a logistic regression model, and evaluates whether there is any possible bias towards teams by referees\u27 decision making. Using penalties that occurred from 2009 until 2018, there seems to be a bias towards teams which are part of larger markets. How successful the team is and how famous some of the players are can also possibly affect the odds of a referee making a penalty call. Due to how underdeveloped the area of research is, there are many ways to expand it to essentially bring further light to whether there is any referee bias in the NFL

Synthesis of tailored hierarchical ZSM-5 zeolites and aggregates for the catalytic pyrolysis of biomass

Catalytic fast pyrolysis (CFP) is a one-step process for the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into valuable chemicals and a deoxygenated liquid energy carrier (bio-oil) with improved properties compared to bio-oil from conventional fast pyrolysis. In the process, the vapors produced from the thermal decomposition of biomass react on the surface of a heterogeneous catalyst and are deoxygenated, cracked and converted into more desirable products. Many materials have been investigated as candidate catalysts for CFP, with the most commonly studied one being the ZSM-5 zeolite. ZSM-5 has been found to be a very effective catalyst due to its high acidity and unique micropore structure that is very shape selective for the production of monoaromatic hydrocarbons and the minimization of unwanted coke1. However, bulky oxygenates and oligomers that are formed form the thermal decomposition of biomass cannot diffuse into the micropores of the ZSM-5 and can only react on the limited external surface area of the catalyst. For this reason, the purely micropore structure of the ZSM-5 may not be optimal for the CFP of biomass and recently, there is increasing interest for hierarchical mesoporous zeolites as candidate catalysts for the process. These materials combine the high acidity and shape selectivity of the zeolite microporous structure with the enhanced accessibility that is provided by a secondary mesoporous network. The desilication of conventional zeolites is reportedly one of the most effective, versatile and easily scalable methods available to synthesize hierarchical zeolites2. Hierarchical zeolites synthesized via desilication have been tested for the CFP of biomass in small-scale reactors by several groups3-6. Provided that desilication was carried out at mild conditions, these materials performed better in terms of activity and desirable product formation. At more severe desilication conditions, the performance of the materials deteriorated, most likely due to a collapse of the zeolite structure, macropore formation and severe loss of microporosity and shape-selectivity. In this work, the mild desilication (0.2M NaOH aqueous solution) of a microporous ZSM-5 catalyst (Si/Al = 40) was carried out at variable temperatures (50, 65 and 80 ºC) and contact times (15, 30 and 45 min). The aim was the controlled formation of mesopores in the ZSM-5 catalyst with minimal loss of the micropore structure in order to increase accessibility and preserve shape selectivity, properties that are desirable for the CFP of biomass. Desilication at 50 ºC was found to be effective for the increase of the total and external surface area of the zeolite to levels comparable or higher to those achieved at the higher and more commonly used temperatures of 65 ­­­ºC and 80 ºC, provided enough contact time was allowed (≥ 30 min). Moreover, desilication at the lower temperature of 50 ºC resulted in a zeolite with a markedly narrower mesopore size distribution, between 2-20 nm, compared to desilication at 65 ºC or 80 ºC where wider mesopore size distributions were observed (2-40 nm), as well as some macropore formation (\u3e 50 nm). The smaller mesopore sizes achieved with desilication at 50 ºC may prove to be beneficial for biomass CFP, in which shape-selectivity plays a crucial role to inhibit the formation undesirable byproducts, such as coke. A simple laboratory procedure was developed to prepare the most interesting hierarchical zeolite samples into aggregates with a binder (bentonite) in order to carry out catalyst screening studies in medium-scale fluidized bed reactors with wood biomass. The prepared aggregates were also characterized in depth to identify any interactions between the zeolite and the binder phases. Acknowledgments This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 752941. References 1 J. Jae, G.A. Tompsett, A.J. Foster, at al., J Catal, 2011, 279, 257–268. 2 D. Verboekend and J. Pérez-Ramírez, Catal Sci Technol, 2011, 1, 879–890. 3 S. Stefanidis, K. Kalogiannis, E. F. Iliopoulou, at al., Green Chem, 2013, 15, 1647–1658. 4 D. P. Gamliel, H. J. Cho, W. Fan and J. A. Valla, Appl Catal A-Gen, 2016, 522, 109–119. 5 S. S. Shao, H. Y. Zhang, D. K. Shen and R. Xiao, RSC Adv., 2016, 6, 44313–44320. 6 K. Ding, Z. Zhong, J. Wang, et al., J Anal Appl Pyrol, 2017, 125, 153–161

Digital Government: Knowledge Management Over Time-Varying Geospatial Datasets

Spatially-related data is collected by many government agencies in various formats and for various uses. This project seeks to facilitate the integration of these data, thus providing new uses. This will require the development of a knowledge management framework to provide syntax, context, and semantics, as well as exploring the introduction of time-varying data into the framework. Education and outreach will be part of the project through the development of an on-line short courses related to data integration in the area of geographical information systems. The grantees will be working with government partners (National Imagery and Mapping Agency, the National Agricultural Statistics Service, and the US Army Topographic Engineering Center), as well as an industrial organization, Base Systems, and the non-profit OpenGIS Consortium, which works closely with vendors of GIS products

Comparative study on catalytic and non-catalytic pyrolysis of olive mill solid wastes

In this study, catalytic and non-catalytic fast pyrolysis of dried olive husk and olive kernels was carried out. A bubbling fluidised bed reactor was used for the non-catalytic processing of the solid olive wastes. In-situ catalytic upgrading of biomass fast pyrolysis vapours was performed in a fixed bed bench-scale reactor at 500 °C, for catalyst screening purposes. A maximum bio-oil yield of 47.35 wt.% (on dry biomass) was obtained from non-catalytic fast pyrolysis at a reaction temperature of 450 °C, while the bio-oil yield was decreased at 37.14 wt.% when the temperature was increased to 500 °C. In the case of the fixed bed unit tests, the highest liquid (52.66 wt.%) and organics (30.99 wt.%) yield was achieved with the use of the non-catalytic silica sand. Depending on the catalytic material, the liquid yield ranged from 47.03 to 43.96 wt.% the organic yield from 21.15 to 16.34 wt.% on dry biomass. Solid products were increased from 28.23 wt.% for the non-catalytic run to 32.81 wt.% on dry biomass, when MgO (5% Co) was used

Proving the Effectiveness of the Fundamentals of Robotic Surgery (FRS) Skills Curriculum: A Single-blinded, Multispecialty, Multi-institutional Randomized Control Trial

Objective: To demonstrate the noninferiority of the fundamentals of robotic surgery (FRS) skills curriculum over current training paradigms and identify an ideal training platform. Summary Background Data: There is currently no validated, uniformly accepted curriculum for training in robotic surgery skills. Methods: Single-blinded parallel-group randomized trial at 12 international American College of Surgeons (ACS) Accredited Education Institutes (AEI). Thirty-three robotic surgery experts and 123 inexperienced surgical trainees were enrolled between April 2015 and November 2016. Benchmarks (proficiency levels) on the 7 FRS Dome tasks were established based on expert performance. Participants were then randomly assigned to 4 training groups: Dome (n = 29), dV-Trainer (n = 30), and DVSS (n = 32) that trained to benchmarks and control (n = 32) that trained using locally available robotic skills curricula. The primary outcome was participant performance after training based on task errors and duration on 5 basic robotic tasks (knot tying, continuous suturing, cutting, dissection, and vessel coagulation) using an avian tissue model (transfer-test). Secondary outcomes included cognitive test scores, GEARS ratings, and robot familiarity checklist scores. Results: All groups demonstrated significant performance improvement after skills training (P < 0.01). Participating residents and fellows performed tasks faster (DOME and DVSS groups) and with fewer errors than controls (DOME group; P < 0.01). Inter-rater reliability was high for the checklist scores (0.82–0.97) but moderate for GEARS ratings (0.40–0.67). Conclusions: We provide evidence of effectiveness for the FRS curriculum by demonstrating better performance of those trained following FRS compared with controls on a transfer test. We therefore argue for its implementation across training programs before surgeons apply these skills clinically