Effect of Supports and Promoters on the Performance of Ni-Based Catalysts in Ethanol Steam Reforming

Ethanol steam reforming (ESR) is one of the potential processes to convert ethanol into valuable products. Hydrogen produced from ESR is considered as green energy for the future and can be an excellent alternative to fossil fuels with the aim of mitigating the greenhouse gas effect. The ESR process has been well studied, using transition metals as catalysts coupled with both acidic and basic oxides as supports. Among various reported transition metals, Ni is an inexpensive material with activity comparable to that of noble metals, showing promising ethanol conversion and hydrogen yields. Additionally, different promoters and supports were utilized to enhance the hydrogen yield and the catalyst stability. This review summarizes and discusses the influences of the supports and promoters of Ni-based catalysts on the ESR process.     

Experimental data and approximate estimation for dissociation time of hydrate plugs

New experimental data coupled with a numerical model and an approximate solution are proposed to predict dissociation time of hydrate plugs in oil sub-sea pipelines. The experimental hydrate plugs are dissociated by the method of symmetric depressurisation, both in a specially designed apparatus and a classical batch reactor. The agreement between the estimation of the model and the experimental data and the simplicity of the approximate equation presents an advantage in estimating the time of hydrate plug dissociation in pipelines.     

Iron deficiency anemia following prenatal nutrition interventions.

PURPOSE: Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) during pregnancy and infancy is still common in developed countries, especially in low-income groups. We examined the prevalence of anemia and IDA in healthy low-income pregnant women participating in the Early Childhood Initiatives (ECI) program, and in their infants when they reached six months of age. METHODS: Pregnant women were recruited by nutritionists. In mothers, hemoglobin (Hb), mean corpuscular volume, and serum ferritin (SF) were measured at 36 +/- 2 weeks of gestation. In infants, Hb, mean corpuscular volume, SF, serum iron, total iron binding capacity (TIBC), and transferrin saturation (TS) were measured at six months of age. Thirty-one mother-infant pairs participated. RESULTS: Among the 31 pregnant women participating in the ECI program, six (19.4%) were anemic (Hb <110 g/L) and five (16.1%) suffered from IDA (Hb <110 g/L and SF <10 microg/L). Among infants, seven of 23 (30.4%) were anemic (Hb <110 g/L) and five of 23 (21.7%) suffered from IDA (Hb <110 g/L plus two of the following: TIBC >60 micromol/L, SF <10 microg/L, serum iron <5.3 micromol/L, TS < or = 15%). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of anemia in this group of low-income pregnant women is comparable to that in privileged women. The prevalence of IDA in infants is comparable to that observed in other high-risk groups. Effective strategies are needed to prevent IDA in vulnerable groups.     

Glyconanoparticle-DNA interactions: an atomic force microscopy study.

Glyconanoparticles which present carbohydrate and amino groups motifs at their surface were produced. These particles were highly stable and soluble in aqueous solutions. The presence of the carbohydrate groups also allowed the inclusion of more strongly binding groups, without affecting solubility. The binding of a model DNA, plasmid by these nanoparticles was studied by atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and gel electrophoresis. Significant differences between the nanoparticles based on their affinities for the DNA were found, with implications for their potential use as nonviral gene delivery agents.     

Test of the deterministic conjecture for the instantaneous time phase fluctuations of an oscillator

The fluctuations observed by recording the picosecond pulses of a mode-locked laser with a synchroscan streak camera are due to the laser jitter and to the variations of the zero crossing of the synchronization. By means of a simple model, it is shown that the dispersions measured when the synchronization is generated from the mode-locker oscillator reflect the instantaneous time phase fluctuations of this oscillator. From the study of the experimental recordings with methods of time series analysis it results that the phase noise of the electronic oscillator is consistent with an underlying low-dimensional strange attractor.     

Does a regional accent perturb speech processing?

The processing costs involved in regional accent normalization were evaluated by measuring differences in lexical decision latencies for targets placed at the end of sentences with different French regional accents. Over a series of 6 experiments, the authors examined the time course of comprehension disruption by manipulating the duration and presentation conditions of accented speech. Taken together, the findings of these experiments indicate that regional accent normalization involves a short-term adjustment mechanism that develops as a certain amount of accented signal is available, resulting in a temporary perturbation in speech processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motion synthesis and editing for the generation of new sign language content

Machine Translation - Existing work on the animation of signing avatars often relies on pure procedural techniques or on the playback of Motion Capture (MoCap) data. While the first solution...