Background
Synthetic fuels based on renewable hydrogen and CO
2
are a currently highly discussed piece of the puzzle to defossilize the transport sector. In this regard, CO
2
can play a positive role ...in shaping a sustainable future. Large potentials are available as a product of biogas production, however occurring in small scales and in thin spatial distributions. This work aims to evaluate suitable synthetic fuel products to be produced at farm sites.
Methods
A thermodynamic analysis to assess the energetic efficiency of synthesis pathways and a qualitative assessment of product handling issues is carried out.
Results
Regarding the technical and safety-related advantages in storage, liquid products are the superior option for fuel production at decentralized sites. Due to the economy of scale, multi-stage synthesis processes lose economic performance with rising complexity. A method was shown which covers a principle sketch of all necessary reaction, separation steps, and all compression and heat exchanger units. The figures showed that methanol and butanol are the most suitable candidates in contrast to OME
3-5
for implementation in existing transportation and fuel systems. These results were underpin by a Gibbs energy analysis.
Conclusions
As long as safety regulations are met and the farm can guarantee safe storage and transport, farm-site production for all intermediates can be realized technically. Ultimately, this work points out that the process must be kept as simple as possible, favoring methanol production at farm site and its further processing to more complicated fuels in large units for several fuel pathways.
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•Monophyletic larval feeding groups exhibit distinct male apomorphies.•Multi-locus species tree analysis strongly supports recently described species.•Larval head morphology provides ...crucial information for species-level identification.•Western Balkans and Southern Alps are hot-spots of Drusinae diversity.
The caddisfly subfamily Drusinae BANKS comprises roughly 100 species inhabiting mountain ranges in Europe, Asia Minor and the Caucasus. A 3-gene phylogeny of the subfamily previously identified three major clades that were corroborated by larval morphology and feeding ecologies: scraping grazers, omnivorous shredders and filtering carnivores. Larvae of filtering carnivores exhibit unique head capsule complexities, unknown from other caddisfly larvae. Here we assess the species-level relationships within filtering carnivores, hypothesizing that head capsule complexity is derived from simple shapes observed in the other feeding groups. We summarize the current systematics and taxonomy of the group, clarify the systematic position of Cryptothrix nebulicola, and present a larval key to filtering carnivorous Drusinae.
We infer relationships of all known filtering carnivorous Drusinae and 34 additional Drusinae species using Bayesian species tree analysis and concatenated Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of 3805bp of sequence data from six gene regions (mtCOI5-P, mtCOI3-P, 16S mrDNA, CADH, WG, 28S nrDNA), morphological cladistics from 308 characters, and a total evidence analysis.
All analyses support monophyly of the three feeding ecology groups but fail to fully resolve internal relationships. Within filtering carnivores, variation in head setation and frontoclypeus structure may be associated with progressive niche adaptation, with less complex species recovered at a basal position. We propose that diversification of complex setation and frontoclypeus shape represents a recent evolutionary development, hypothetically enforcing speciation and niche specificity within filtering carnivorous Drusinae.
We present the results of a comparative study of loading conditions on the interactions between extension fractures and veins. We model the fracture behavior of brittle discrete element materials ...each containing a tabular vein body of variable orientation and strength in two different loading conditions. The first is uniaxial tension, applied with servo‐controlled sidewalls. The second is a boudinage boundary condition in which a tensile triaxial stress state is induced in the brittle model volume by quasi‐viscous extensional deformation in the adjacent layers. Most of the fracture‐ vein interactions observed in uniaxial tension also exists in boudinage boundary conditions. However, the importance of each interaction mechanism for a given configuration of relative strength and misorientation of the vein may differ according to the loading mechanism. Nucleation and internal deflection is under both boundary conditions the dominating fracture‐vein interaction style in weak veins. In uniaxial tension models, strong veins tend to alter the fracture path by external deflection, while under boudinage loading these veins are more likely overcome by the fracture step over mechanism. Dynamic bifurcation of fractures was observed in uniaxial tension models but never for boudinage boundary conditions. This is because the acceleration of fracture tips in these conditions is suppressed by interaction with distributed fractures as well as viscous damping by the neighboring layers.
Key Points
Loading conditions influence fracture‐vein interactions but do not change their general nature
Boudinage loading enhances distributed fracture nucleation and fracture‐fracture interaction
External deflection and dynamic bifurcation are impeded in boudinage loading conditions
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•First Pd catalysed Heck reactions of steroids.•Synthesis of various 16-E-arylidene-3-methoxy-estrones.•High E-selectivity.
16-E-Arylidene-3-methoxy-estrones were synthesized using a ...palladium catalysed Mizoroki-Heck reaction. This methodology tolerates various functional groups and gives the corresponding products in yields between 14 and 99%, which were strongly dependent on the electronic character of the aryl halides.
•Serum derived MBL–MASPs complexes activate endothelial cells.•Among the components of the complexes only MASP-1 can trigger response in cells.•MBL, MASP-2, MASP-3 and the N-terminal fragments are ...ineffective.•The proteolytic activity of MASP-1 is essential to trigger Ca2+ signal.•MASP-1 plays a central role in the early innate immune response.
The complement system plays an important role in the induction of inflammation. In this study we demonstrate that the initiation complexes of the lectin pathway, consisting of mannose-binding lectin (MBL) and associated serine proteases (MASPs) elicit Ca2+ signaling in cultured endothelial cells (HUVECs). This is in agreement with our previous results showing that the recombinant catalytic fragment of MASP-1 activates endothelial cells by cleaving protease activated receptor 4. Two other proteases, MASP-2 and MASP-3 are also associated with MBL. Earlier we showed that recombinant catalytic fragment of MASP-2 cannot activate HUVECs, and in this study we demonstrate that the same fragment of MASP-3 has also no effect. We find the same to be the case if we use recombinant forms of the N-terminal parts of MASP-1 and MASP-2 which only contain non-enzymatic domains. Moreover, stable zymogen mutant form of MASP-1 was also ineffective to stimulate endothelial cells, which suggests that in vivo MASP-1 have the ability to activate endothelial cells directly as well as to activate the lectin pathway simultaneously. We show that among the components of the MBL–MASPs complexes only MASP-1 is able to trigger response in HUVECs and the proteolytic activity of MASP-1 is essential. Our results strengthen the view that MASP-1 plays a central role in the early innate immune response.
Two new species of the genus Drusus (Trichoptera, Limnephilidae, Drusinae) from the Western Balkans are described. Additionally, observations on the biodiversity and threats to the region's endemic ...aquatic fauna are discussed. Drususkrpachi sp. n. is a micro-endemic of the Korab Mountains, Macedonia, and Drususmalickyi sp. n. is a micro-endemic of the Prokletije Mountains, Albania. Both new species are most similar to Drususmacedonicus but differ from the latter in the shape of segment IX, the shape of the tips of the intermediate appendages in lateral view, the shape of the inferior appendages, and the form and shape of the parameres. In addition, males of the European species of filtering carnivore Drusinae are diagnosed and illustrated, including Cryptothrixnebulicola McLachlan, Drususchrysotus Rambur, Drususdiscolor Rambur, Drususmacedonicus Schmid, Drususmeridionalis Kumanski, Drususmuelleri McLachlan, Drususromanicus Murgoci and Botosaneanu, and Drusussiveci Malicky. These additions to the Western Balkan fauna demonstrate the significance of this region for European biodiversity and further highlight the importance of faunistic studies in Europe.
The Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) is a member of the class B G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) family and a well-established target for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. The N-terminal ...extracellular domain (ECD) of GLP-1R is important for GLP-1 binding and the crystal structure of the GLP-1/ECD complex was reported previously. The first structure of a class B GPCR transmembrane (TM) domain was solved recently, but the full length receptor structure is still not well understood. Here we describe the molecular details of antibody-mediated antagonism of the GLP-1R using both in vitro pharmacology and x-ray crystallography. We showed that the antibody Fab fragment (Fab 3F52) blocked the GLP-1 binding site of the ECD directly and thereby acts as a competitive antagonist of native GLP-1. Interestingly, Fab 3F52 also blocked a short peptide agonist believed to engage primarily the transmembrane and extracellular loop region of GLP-1R, whereas functionality of an allosteric small-molecule agonist was not inhibited. This study has implications for the structural understanding of the GLP-1R and related class B GPCRs, which is important for the development of new and improved therapeutics targeting these receptors.
We have developed a new approach for the numerical modeling of deformation processes combining brittle fracture and viscous flow. The new approach is based on the combination of two meshless ...particle-based methods: the discrete element method (DEM) for the brittle part of the model and smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH) for the viscous part. Both methods are well established in their respective application domains. The two methods are coupled at the particle scale, with two different coupling mechanisms explored: one is where DEM particles act as virtual SPH particles and one where SPH particles are treated like DEM particles when interacting with other DEM particles. The suitability of the combined approach is demonstrated by applying it to two geological processes, boudinage, and hydrofracturing, which involve the coupled deformation of a brittle solid and a viscous fluid. Initial results for those applications show that the new approach has strong potential for the numerical modeling of coupled brittleâeuro"viscous deformation processes.PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
The aim of this study is to improve our knowledge of the processes that lead to clay smear during faulting of a layered sand-clay sequence in an analogue sandbox model. We carefully characterized ...mechanical properties of the materials used by a series of geotechnical tests. Displacement field was quantified using PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry). The model is water-saturated to allow the deformation of wet clay and sand in one experiment comprising a sand package with a horizontal layer of clay above a predefined rigid basement fault. The thickness and rigidity of the clay layer are the parameters varied in this study. The model shows a range of structures that are related to competence contrast between sand and different clay types. Results show ductile shearing of soft clay with a transition to brittle fracturing of stiff clay accompanied by the formation of rotating clay blocks in the fault zone. Localized deformation is observed through time showing (i) the propagation of one active fault migrating laterally through the sediment package, and (ii) the formation of a stable prism between two or more active faults that gets progressively smaller with minor rotation of the hanging wall fault. Continuous clay smear is observed resulting from the lateral injection of clay as well as from a reworked mixture of sand and clay.
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