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•A CLC unit modified by implementing ring-type internals in the fuel reactor.•Internals modified the solids distribution in the reactor.•Combustion efficiency enhancement due to the ...internals is experimentally confirmed.•The oxygen demand was decreased by 20%.•Internals improved the oxidation of volatile matter.
Chemical Looping Combustion (CLC) with solid fuels has been widely developed by using two interconnected fluidized beds, the fuel reactor and the air reactor, with an oxygen carrier continuously circulating between them. Experience gained in this process shows that high CO2 capture values can be reached. However, complete combustion of the fuel is not achieved, with some H2, CO and CH4 as the main unconverted compounds in the combustion products from the fuel reactor. It is believed that the combustion efficiency can be increased by improving the gas-solid contact in the fuel reactor. In this work, the solids distribution in the fuel reactor was modified by using ring-type internals with the objective of enhancing the gas-solid contact. Two experimental campaigns were carried out in a 50 kWth CLC unit burning a bituminous coal with ilmenite particles in the temperature interval of 900–1000 °C. The first campaign was conducted with the original riser of the fuel reactor, which was characterized by a smooth section from bottom to top. For the second campaign, three ring-type internals were implemented in the riser in order to modify the solids distribution in the fuel reactor. The presence of the internals had a beneficial effect on the coal combustion. The major benefit was an improved oxidation of volatile matter in the form of CH4 and the full conversion of H2. As a result, the total oxygen demand decreased by 20%, from 12.2% to 9.8%, with the implementation of the internals.
There is currently little knowledge and few published works on the subject of vulnerability to heat in rural environments at the country level. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine ...whether rural areas are more vulnerable to extreme heat than urban areas in Spain. This study aimed to analyze whether a pattern of vulnerability depends on contextual, environmental, demographic, economic and housing variables.
An ecological, longitudinal and retrospective study was carried out based on time series data between January 01, 2000 and December 31, 2013 in 42 geographic areas in 10 provinces in Spain. We first analyzed the functional relationship between the mortality rate per million inhabitants and maximum daily temperature (Tmax). We then determined the summer temperature threshold (Pthreshold) (June–September) at which increases in mortality are produced that are attributable to heat. In a second phase, based on Pthreshold, a vulnerability variable was calculated, and its distribution was analyzed using mixed linear models from the Poisson family (link = log). In these models, the dependent variable was vulnerability, and the independent variables were exposure to high temperatures, aridity of the climate, deprivation index, percentage of people over age 65, rurality index, percentage of housing built prior to 1980 and condition of dwellings.
Rurality was a protective factor, and vulnerability in urban areas was six times greater. In contrast, risk factors included aridity (RR = 5.89 (2.26 15.36)), living in cool summer zones (2.69 (1.23, 5.91)), poverty (4.05 (1.91 8.59)) and the percentage of dysfunctional housing (1.13 (1.04 1.24)).
Rural areas are less vulnerable to extreme heat than the urban areas analyzed. Also, population groups with worse working conditions and higher percentages of dwellings in poor conditions are more vulnerable.
•Urban population is more vulnerable to extreme heat than rural population in Spain.•This vulnerability may be due to the social structure of both kind of areas.•Climate, poverty and building quality can also explain the distribution of vulnerability.
•We studied the role of the anterior (aIC) and posterior (pIC) insula in fear memory.•Post-training inactivation of aIC and pIC did not impact background contextual fear conditioning.•The pIC but not ...aIC is necessary for the consolidation of tone fear conditioning.
The insular cortex (IC) is notably implicated in emotional and cognitive processing; however, little is known regarding to what extent its two main subregions play functionally distinct roles on memory consolidation of conditioned fear tasks. Here we verified the effects of temporary functional inactivation of the anterior (aIC) and posterior IC (pIC) on contextual and tone fear memory. Rats received post-training bilateral infusions of the GABAA receptor agonist muscimol into either the aIC or pIC and were tested 48 and 72 h after the delay tone fear conditioning session to assess the background contextual (CFC) and tone (TFC) fear conditioning, respectively. Inactivation of the aIC during memory consolidation did not affect fear memory for CFC or TFC. On the other hand, post-training inactivation of the pIC impaired TFC but not CFC. Our findings indicate that the pIC is a necessary part of the neural circuitry related to the consolidation of cued-fear memories.
Abstract
Heterosis occurs when the F1s outperform their parental lines for a trait. Reciprocal hybrids are obtained by changing the cross direction of parental genotypes. Both biological phenomena ...could affect the external and internal attributes of fleshy fruits. This work aimed to detect reciprocal effects and heterosis in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) fruit quality traits and metabolite content. Twelve agronomic traits and 28 metabolites identified and estimated by 1H-NMR were evaluated in five cultivars grown in two environments. Given that the genotype component was more important than the phenotype, the traits were evaluated following a full diallel mating design among those cultivars, in a greenhouse. Hybrids showed a higher phenotypic diversity than parental lines. Interestingly, the metabolites, mainly amino acids, displayed more reciprocal effects and heterosis. Agronomic traits were more influenced by general combining ability (GCA) and metabolites by specific combining ability (SCA). Furthermore, the genetic distance between parental lines was not causally related to the occurrence of reciprocal effects or heterosis. Hybrids with heterosis and a high content of metabolites linked to tomato flavour and nutritious components were obtained. Our results highlight the impact of selecting a cultivar as male or female in a cross to enhance the variability of fruit attributes through hybrids as well as the possibility to exploit heterosis for fruit composition.
Reciprocal effects and heterosis for agronomic traits and metabolites in tomato fruits were evidenced. Hybrids with higher values of metabolites influencing tomato flavour and precursors of nutraceutical compounds were obtained.
Abstract
Lymph nodes and spleens are innervated by sympathetic nerve fibers that enter alongside arteries. Despite discovery of these nerve fibers nearly 40 years ago, the role of these nerves during ...response to infection remains poorly defined. We have found that chemical depletion of sympathetic nerve fibers compromises the ability of mice to develop protective immune memory to a Staphylococcus aureus infection. Innate control of the primary infection was not impacted by sympathectomy. Germinal center formation is also compromised in nerve-depleted animals; however, protective antibody responses are still generated. Interestingly, protective CD4+ T-cell memory fails to form in the absence of sympathetic nerves after S aureus infection.
Memory CD4+ T cell responses are critical for protection from S. aureus, and do not form in the absence of sympathetic nerves. This may partially explain why patients with peripheral nerve damage are susceptible to recurrent S. aureus infections.
Context: Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) is commonly considered a cardinal sign of sleep apnea; however, the mechanism underlying the association is unclear.
Objective: The purpose of this study ...was to assess the association between the complaint of EDS and sleep apnea, considering a wide range of possible risk factors in a population sample.
Design and Setting: We examined this question in the Penn State cohort (a random sample of 16,583 men and women from central Pennsylvania, ranging in age from 20 to 100 yr). A random subset of this cohort (n = 1,741) was further evaluated for one night in the sleep laboratory.
Main Outcome Measure: The main measure was a complaint of EDS.
Results: The final logistic regression model indicated depression was the most significant risk factor for EDS followed by body mass index, age, typical sleep duration, diabetes, smoking, and finally sleep apnea. The strength of the association with EDS decreased with increasing age, whereas the association of depression with EDS was stronger in the young. EDS is more prevalent in the young (<30 yr), suggesting the presence of unmet sleep needs and depression, and in the very old (>75 yr), suggesting increasing medical illness and health problems. EDS was associated with a reduced report of typical sleep duration without any association with objective polysomnographic measures.
Conclusions: It appears that the presence of EDS is more strongly associated with depression and metabolic factors than with sleep-disordered breathing or sleep disruption per se. Our findings suggest that patients with a complaint of EDS should be thoroughly assessed for depression and obesity/diabetes independent of whether sleep-disordered breathing is present.
A number of environmental factors, such as air pollution, noise in urbanised settings and meteorological-type variables, may give rise to important effects on human health. In recent years, many ...studies have confirmed the relation between various mental disorders and these factors, with a possible impact on the increase in emergency hospital admissions due to these causes. The aim of this study was to analyse the impact of a range of environmental factors on daily emergency hospital admissions due to mental disorders in the Madrid Autonomous Region (MAR), across the period 2013–2018.
Longitudinal ecological time series study analysed by Generalised Linear Models with Poisson regression, with the dependent variable being daily Emergency Hospital Mental Health Admissions (EHMHA) in the MAR, and the independent variable being mean daily concentrations of chemical pollutants, noise levels and meteorological variables.
EHMHA were related statistically significantly in the short term with diurnal noise levels. Relative risks (RRs) for total admissions due to mental disorders and self-inflicted injuries, in the case of diurnal noise was RR: 1.008 95%CI (1.003 1.013). Admissions attributable to diurnal noise account for 5.5% of total admissions across the study period. There was no association between hospital admissions and chemical air pollution.
Noise is a variable that shows a statistically significant short-term association with EHMHA across all age groups in the MAR region. The results of this study may serve as a basis for drawing up public health guidelines and plans, which regard these variables as risk factors for mental disorders, especially in the case of noise, since this fundamentally depends on anthropogenic activities in highly urbanised areas with high levels of traffic density.
•Emergency Hospital Mental Health Admissions (EHMHA) were related with diurnal noise.•Diurnal noise account for 5% of EHMHA in Madrid.•No association detected between EHMHA and chemical air pollution.
Copper catalysts prepared using four supports (Mg- and Sr-modified Al2O3 and MgTiO3 and SrTiO3 perovskites) have been tested for soot oxidation by O2 and NO x /O2. Among the catalysts studied, ...Cu/SrTiO3 is the most active for soot oxidation by NO x /O2 and the support affects positively copper activity. With this catalyst, and under the experimental conditions used, the soot combustion by NO x /O2 presents a considerable rate from 500 °C (100 °C below the uncatalysed reaction). The Cu/SrTiO3 catalyst is also the most effective for NO x chemisorption around 425 °C. The best activity of Cu/SrTiO3 can be attributed to the improved redox properties of copper originated by Cu-support interactions. This seems to be related to the presence of weakly bound oxygen on this sample. The copper species present in the catalyst Cu/SrTiO3 can be reduced more easily than those in other supports, and for this reason, this catalyst seems to be the most effective to convert NO into NO2, which explains its highest activity for soot oxidation.
Several components in the oil and gas industry are subjected to wear and corrosion. This work evaluated the feasibility of using Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC) coatings in Subsea Safety Control Valves ...(SSCV), piston and pumps. These are made from API X65 carbon steel and are subjected to wear and corrosive/saline environments. Coatings were deposited using Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition (PECVD). The electrochemical behaviour of Silicon-doped and Hydrogenated DLC films was evaluated before and after wear tests. Film characterisation included nano-indentation, surface roughness, micro-abrasion testing, Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Electrochemical tests and electrochemical impedance was also measured. Sliding wear tests against silicon nitride were conducted with a maximum initial Hertz stress of 150 and 400MPa under dry and wet conditions. The H-DLC had better wear performance than Si-DLC. The advantages of H-DLC were related to higher hardness increasing the wear resistance; small galvanic coupling between DLC and steel, inhibiting the localised corrosion into the DLC defects; lowest anodic current, suggesting high resistivity to use as a corrosion barrier for steel and the corrosion process on the substrate that did not affect DLC properties (adhesion and wear/ corrosion resistance).
•H-DLC showed an excellent adhesion to the substrate.•The H-DLC coating had superior wear performance than Si-DLC.•Tribology tests showed Si-DLC coating total delamination in all contact pressure applied.•H-DLC was effective against the corrosion process in saline solution.
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