Technical and economic analysis of solvent-based lithium-ion electrode drying with water and NMP

Processing lithium-ion battery (LIB) electrode dispersions with water as the solvent during primary drying offers many advantages over N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP). An in-depth analysis of the comparative drying costs of LIB electrodes is discussed for both NMP- and water-based dispersion processing in terms of battery pack $/kWh. Electrode coating manufacturing and capital equipment cost savings are compared for water vs. conventional NMP organic solvent processing. A major finding of this work is that the total electrode manufacturing costs, whether water- or NMP-based, contribute about 8–9% of the total pack cost. However, it was found that up to a 2?×?reduction in electrode processing (drying and solvent recovery) cost can be expected along with a $3–6?M savings in associated plant capital equipment (for a plant producing 100,000 10-kWh Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) batteries) using water as the electrode solvent. This paper shows a different perspective in that the most important benefits of aqueous electrode processing actually revolve around capital equipment savings and environmental stewardship and not processing cost savings.     

The TSIMMIS Approach to Mediation: Data Models and Languages

TSIMMIS—The Stanford-IBM Manager of Multiple InformationSources—is a system for integrating information. It offers a datamodel and a common query language that are designed to support thecombining of information from many different sources. It also offerstools for generating automatically the components that are needed tobuild systems for integrating information. In this paper we shalldiscuss the principal architectural features and their rationale.     

Coronary artery perforation with rotational coronary atherectomy]

We tried to determine whether women with a urinary tract infection (UTI) were more likely to have had a recent pelvic examination than were women seen for other reasons. We compared 56 women who were diagnosed as having a UTI with 49 controls who had an unrelated complaint (sinusitis). Significantly more women with UTIs had received a pelvic examination within the preceding 2 months (43% vs 16%, P = .01). We conclude that having a pelvic examination is associated with an increased risk of a UTI developing within the following 2 months. This may be due to physical factors related to the examination or to risk factors related to the patients' reasons for obtaining a pelvic examination. Further study is needed to determine if the pelvic examination is an independent risk factor. If so, established preventive measures could reduce this risk.     

Extracellular matrix regulates apoptosis in human neutrophils

BACKGROUND: During inflammation, polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) migrate into the affected tissue interacting with extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins. We tested the hypothesis that PMN-matrix interaction affects PMN apoptosis. METHODS: Apoptosis of human PMNs was detected by DNA-fragmentation assay and was quantitated by flow cytometry, ultraviolet and light microscopy. Cell adhesion was assessed by a toluidine blue assay, and cell spreading was detected by phase contrast microscopy. Protein tyrosine phosphorylation was studied using Western blotting and confocal microscopy. RESULTS: PMN apoptosis was not different in unstimulated cultures on either surface-adherent fibronectin or on PolyHema, a surface that prevents cell adherence. However, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF alpha) treatment significantly increased apoptosis on fibronectin (37 +/- 4%) compared with PolyHema (20 +/- 3%). Tests on other matrix substances revealed that the percentage of apoptotic PMNs in the presence of TNF alpha was 8 +/- 1% on PolyHema, 26 +/- 4% on fibronectin, 17 +/- 2% on collagen I, 16 +/- 2% on collagen IV, and 16 +/- 3% on laminin (P < 0.05 for all matrices compared with PolyHema). Preincubation with genistein (50 microM) significantly inhibited TNF alpha-mediated apoptosis on fibronectin (39 +/- 4% to 21 +/- 4%) but not on PolyHema (21 +/- 4% to 16 +/- 4%). Genistein also reduced PMN spreading on fibronectin. In contrast, inhibitors of mitogen-activated protein kinase and protein kinase C showed no effect on PMN apoptosis. Fibronectin strongly increased tyrosine phosphorylation of three 102, 63, and 54 kDa proteins. Five newly tyrosine-phosphorylated 185, 85, 66, 56, and 42 kDa bands were also visible. Using confocal microscopy, highest tyrosine phosphorylation was localized to sites of cell-matrix interaction. CONCLUSIONS: ECM influences apoptosis in TNF alpha-activated, adherent, spreading PMNs. The process is regulated by tyrosine phosphorylation. Acceleration of apoptosis may shorten the PMN lifespan and thereby locally regulate inflammation.     

Deposition of Free Cholesterol in the Blood Vessels of Patients with Coronary Artery Disease: a Possible Novel Mechanism for Atherogenesis

A cholesterol-rich nanoemulsion (LDE) that mimics the composition of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) acquires apoE in the plasma and is taken-up by the cells by LDL receptors. In this study, to verify whether free cholesterol (FC) and the cholesteryl ester (CE) components of LDL are taken-up differently by the vessels. LDE labeled with ³H-cholesterol and ¹⁴C-cholesteryl oleate was injected into 20 coronary artery disease patients 24 h before a scheduled myocardial coronary artery bypass grafting. The plasma kinetics of both radiolabels was determined from plasma samples collected over 24 h, and fragments of vessels discarded during surgery were collected and analyzed for radioactivity. LDE FC was removed faster than CE. The radioactive counting of LDE CE was greater than that of LDE FC in the blood, but the uptake of FC was markedly greater than that of CE in all fragments: fivefold greater in the aorta (p = 0.04), fourfold greater in the internal thoracic artery (p = 0.03), tenfold greater in the saphenous vein (p = 0.01) and threefold in the radial artery (p = 0.05). In conclusion, the greater removal from plasma of FC compared with CE and the remarkably greater vessel tissue uptake of FC compared with CE suggests that, in the plasma, FC dissociates from the nanoemulsion particles and precipitates in the vessels. Considering LDE as an artificial nanoemulsion model for LDL, our results suggest that dissociation of FC from lipoprotein particles and deposition in the vessel wall may play a role as an independent mechanism in atherogenesis.     

Plasma Lipids,Lipoprotein Metabolism and HDL Lipid Transfers are Equally Altered in Metabolic Syndrome and in Type 2 Diabetes

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) refers to states of insulin resistance that predispose to development of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes (T2DM). The aim was to investigate whether plasma lipids and lipid metabolism differ in MetS patients compared to those with T2DM with poor glycemic control (glycated hemoglobin > 7.0). Eighteen patients with T2DM, 18 with MetS and 14 controls, paired for age (40–70 years) and body mass index (BMI), were studied. Plasma lipids and the kinetics of a triacylglycerol-rich emulsion labeled with [³H]-triolein ([³H]-TAG) and [¹⁴C]-cholesteryl esters ([¹⁴C]-CE) injected intravenously followed by one-hour blood sampling were determined. Lipid transfers from an artificial nanoemulsion donor to high-density lipoprotien (HDL) were assayed in vitro. Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and HDL cholesterol (mg/dl) were not different in T2DM (128 ± 7; 42 ± 7) and MetS (142 ± 6; 39 ± 3), but triacylglycerols were even higher in MetS (215 ± 13) than in T2DM (161 ±11, p < 0.05). Fractional clearance rate (FCR, in min¹) of [³H]-TAG and [¹⁴C]-CE were equal in T2DM (0.008 ± 0.018; 0.005 ± 0.024) and MetS (0.010 ± 0.016; 0.006 ± 0.013), and both were reduced compared to controls. The transfer of non-esterified cholesterol, phospholipids and triacylglycerols to HDL was higher in MetS and T2DM than in controls (p < 0.01). Cholesteryl ester transfer and HDL size were equal in all groups. Results imply that MetS is equal to poorly controlled T2DM concerning the disturbances of plasma lipid metabolism examined here, and suggest that there are different thresholds for the insulin action on glucose and lipids. These findings highlight the magnitude of the lipid disturbances in MetS, and may have implications in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases.     

Performance of a high-volume cascade impactor in six European urban environments: mass measurement and chemical characterization of size-segregated particulate samples

The performance of a modified Harvard high-volume cascade impactor (HVCI) was evaluated in six field campaigns with size-segregated particulate samplings for chemical and toxicological characterization. The 7-week sampling campaigns in 2002-2003 in Duisburg (autumn), Prague (winter), Amsterdam (winter), Helsinki (spring), Barcelona (spring), and Athens (summer) were selected to represent contrasting urban environments and seasons of public health interest due to high particulate concentrations or previous findings in epidemiological studies. Particulate samples were collected in parallel with the HVCI (PM(10-2.5), PM(2.5-1), PM(1-0.2), PM(0.2)), a virtual impactor (VI; PM(10-2.5), PM(2.5)), and a Berner low-pressure impactor (BLPI; 10 stages between 0.035 and 10 mum in particle diameter) using a 3- or 4-day sampling duration. The campaigns exhibited different profiles with regard to particulate mass concentration, size distribution, chemical composition and meteorological conditions, thus providing a demanding setup for an overall field comparison of the HVCI with the VI and BLPI reference samplers. Size-segregated particulate mass concentration could be reasonably well measured with the present HVCI configuration. The coarse (PM(10-2.5)) and fine (PM(2.5)) particulate mass agreed within 10% with the low-volume reference samplers, and the four-stage size distribution of the HVCI followed the modal pattern of urban aerosol. The concentrations of chemical constituents measured and integrated especially for the HVCI-PM(2.5) differed to some extent from those measured from the corresponding VI-PM(2.5) samples. This implies that when investigating the association of toxicological responses with the chemical constituents of particulate matter, it is necessary to use the chemical composition data of the same samples as used in toxicological experiments.     

Use of spun soy protein in meat systems

Fabricated products made with spun protein analogues, even at 50% levels, are very similar to their all meat counterparts and have high acceptability. The flavor and texture problems associated with many other meat extenders which restrict their use to 10–30% can be overcome by use of spun protein analogues. These spun protein analogues are very adaptable to applications with sectioned and formed products and in some cases actually improve product quality.     

Selective-Splitting and Cache-Maintenance Algorithms for Associative-Client Caches

We propose a number of selective-splitting and cache-maintenance algorithms to reduce the computational complexity of associative-client caches and network load. Our selective-splitting algorithms selectively split query-intersected semantic regions based on the relative region access-latency or relative region size in a semantic data caching and replacement model. Our cache-maintenance algorithms are set up for studying a variety of design issues in synchronizing associative-client caches. We analyzed the performance of our proposed algorithms in a network environment. Results from our study show that the selective-splitting algorithms reduce the number of splitting operations by 80% in most cases, and the avoidance-based maintenance algorithms outperform the detection-based maintenance algorithms not only in reducing the network traffic but also in rendering consistent performance under various experimental variances.