Functional comparison of administrative laws – Development of EU administrative law based on a state-matrix of general principles – Jürgen Schwarze’s approach – Choices of object, objectives, method, ...assumptions and normative implications – Structural features of the EU administration versus the binary liberty-authority of core principles of national administrative law – Liberal normativist approach – Contemporary critical examination of the legacy of comparative administrative law
► Agro-forestry residues were successfully used as carbon sources for the production of BC. ► The most relevant results were attained with wine and pulp industries residues; 0.6 and 0.3g/L of BC. ► ...BC production from theses residues is enormously improved by addition of nitrogen and phosphate.
Bacterial cellulose (BC), a very peculiar form of cellulose, is gaining considerable importance due to its unique properties. In this study, several residues, from agro-forestry industries, namely grape skins aqueous extract, cheese whey, crude glycerol and sulfite pulping liquor were evaluated as economic carbon and nutrient sources for the production of BC. The most relevant BC amounts attained with the residues from the wine and pulp industries were 0.6 and 0.3g/L, respectively, followed by biodiesel crude residue and cheese whey with productions of about, 0.1g/L after 96h of incubation. Preliminary results on the addition of other nutrient sources (yeast extract, nitrogen and phosphate) to the residues-based culture media indicated that, in general, these BC productions could be increased by ∼200% and ∼100% for the crude glycerol and grape skins, respectively, after the addition organic or inorganic nitrogen.
Executive bodies can acquire constitutive powers, even if subject to detailed substantive strictures. Constitutive powers give executive bodies the possibility to transform normative understandings ...of the meaning of norms and of the goals of public action into legal forms. These bodies thus engage in a jurisgenerative process that enables them to progressively delimit their legal mandates in reaction to socio-economic and political realities. The article illustrates this argument by examining the power of the EU Single Resolution Board (SRB) to determine the resolution of a bank in crisis. It concludes that, in view of constitutive powers, the normative demands that the EU legal system places on executive and administrative bodies must be reconsidered. On that basis and to that effect, mechanisms of accountability should be reconceptualised and reoriented.
•Steam explosion of cardoon (CSE) enhances enzymatic accessibility of cellulose.•CSE promotes disruption of interfibrillar surfaces and partial degradation of lignin.•Alkali extraction of CSE (CSEOH) ...increases lignin removal and saccharification.•CSEOH simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) produced 20gL−1 ethanol.•Bioethanol by SSF was more efficient than separate hydrolyses and fermentation (SHF).
The correct choice of the specific lignocellulosic biomass pretreatment allows obtaining high biomass conversions for biorefinery implementations and cellulosic bioethanol production from renewable resources. Cynara cardunculus (cardoon) pretreated by steam explosion (SE) was involved in second-generation bioethanol production using separate hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF) or simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) processes. Steam explosion pretreatment led to partial solubilisation of hemicelluloses and increased the accessibility of residual polysaccharides towards enzymatic hydrolysis revealing 64% of sugars yield against 11% from untreated plant material. Alkaline extraction after SE pretreatment of cardoon (CSEOH) promoted partial removal of degraded lignin, tannins, extractives and hemicelluloses thus allowing to double glucose concentration upon saccharification step. Bioethanol fermentation in SSF mode was faster than SHF process providing the best results: ethanol concentration 18.7gL−1, fermentation efficiency of 66.6% and a yield of 26.6g ethanol/100g CSEOH or 10.1g ethanol/100g untreated cardoon.
Gallium nitride is a wide bandgap semiconductor material with high electric field strength and electron mobility that translate in a tremendous potential for radio-frequency communications and ...renewable energy generation, amongst other areas. However, due to the particular architecture of GaN high electron mobility transistors, the relatively low thermal conductivity of the material induces the appearance of localized hotspots that degrade the devices performance and compromise their long term reliability. On the search of effective thermal management solutions, the integration of GaN and synthetic diamond with high thermal conductivity and electric breakdown strength shows a tremendous potential. A significant effort has been made in the past few years by both academic and industrial players in the search of a technological process that allows the integration of both materials and the fabrication of high performance and high reliability hybrid devices. Different approaches have been proposed, such as the development of diamond/GaN wafers for further device fabrication or the capping of passivated GaN devices with diamond films. This paper describes in detail the potential and technical challenges of each approach and presents and discusses their advantages and disadvantages.
The question of which European or international institution should exercise public authority is a highly contested one. This new collection offers an innovative approach to answering this vexed ...question. It argues that by viewing public authority as relative, it allows for greater understanding of both its allocation and its legitimacy. Furthermore, it argues that relations between actors should reflect the comparative analysis of the legitimacy assets that each actor can bring into governance processes. Put succinctly, the volume illustrates that public authority is relative between actors and relative to specific legitimacy assets. Drawing on the expertise of leading scholars in the field, it offers a thought-provoking and rigorous analysis of the long debated question of who should do what in European and international law.
Diamond is a promising material for the biomedical field, mainly due to its set of characteristics such as biocompatibility, strength, and electrical conductivity. Diamond can be synthesised in the ...laboratory by different methods, is available in the form of plates or films deposited on foreign substrates, and its morphology varies from microcrystalline diamond to ultrananocrystalline diamond. In this review, we summarise some of the most relevant studies regarding the adhesion of cells onto diamond surfaces, the consequent cell growth, and, in some very interesting cases, the differentiation of cells into neurons and oligodendrocytes. We discuss how different morphologies can affect cell adhesion and how surface termination can influence the surface hydrophilicity and consequent attachment of adherent proteins. At the end of the review, we present a brief perspective on how the results from cell adhesion and biocompatibility can make way for the use of diamond as biointerface.
Real-time monitoring of torque in a rotating shaft is not easy to implement with technologies such as optic fiber sensors or strain gages. Surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensors are wireless and passive ...and can be used to monitor strain in moving parts. Commercial solutions (sensors, antennas and interrogation unit) can easily be purchased from some companies; however, they are not customized and may not meet the specificity of the measurements. In order to evaluate the adequacy of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions, temperature and strain sensors fabricated by SENSeOR (Besançon, France) were mounted on a load cell. The sensors were calibrated using a thermal chamber and a universal testing machine. The load cell was then assembled together with a steel shaft that rotated at different speeds inside an oven. The commercial antennas were replaced with an RF (radio frequency) coupler and the sensors were interrogated with the commercial interrogation unit. The influence of rotation in the accuracy on the measurements, as well as the adequacy of the sensors structure, was evaluated. It can be concluded that SAW sensors can be used to measure temperature or torque in a rotating environment; however, some customization of the components is required in order to overcome the limitations posed by COTS sensing solutions.
Despite being efficient devices, when compared to other light sources, high power light emitting diodes (LEDs) suffer from heating effects that have a negative impact on their reliability. Power LEDs ...are typically assembled on metal core printed circuit boards (MCPCBs) to facilitate the extraction of the heat. Diamond boards can also be used for the same purpose, since diamond is the best isotropic conductor of heat known to man and simultaneously an electrical insulator. In order to evaluate the impact of the boards on the device lifetime, high power Cree LEDs were mounted on FR4, MCPCB, and diamond boards. The case temperature was measured for different current ratings, and the aging acceleration factor of the devices mounted on FR4 and diamond boards was estimated relatively to the LEDs mounted on the MCPCB boards. Diamond boards were shown to have a tremendous impact on the lifetime; for the nominal current level, and depending on the activation energy of the aging processes, the LEDs mounted on diamond boards age 60–80 % slower than their counterparts mounted on the MCPCB boards.
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•The impact of using a diamond board on the life time of power LEDS was evaluated experimentally for the first time•CVD diamond boards increase significantly the life time of electronic components when compared to boards commonly used in power applications; 3rd highlight begins here CVD diamond bards may be used to improve the performance of electronic components in space applications
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