Reducing drying energy and costs by process alterations at aggregate stockpiles

In the field of bulk solids, handling knowledge on moisture behaviour in aggregate stockpiles can be useful for process optimisation in terms of energy consumption. In the asphalt industry, an increase in moisture content leads to a significant increase in energy consumption. To determine the characteristics of moisture behaviour, correlations are investigated between theory on soil–water movements and moisture in aggregates. With column drainage experiments with porous bottom, similarities between theory and practice are found. This allows the use of theoretical hydrologic models to determine and predict the moisture behaviour in drained piles. The effect of process alterations within the system of piles on energy consumption was investigated, and a significant reduction of energy consumption was found.     

Missing data methods in longitudinal studies: a review

Incomplete data are quite common in biomedical and other types of research, especially in longitudinal studies. During the last three decades, a vast amount of work has been done in the area. This has led, on the one hand, to a rich taxonomy of missing-data concepts, issues, and methods and, on the other hand, to a variety of data-analytic tools. Elements of taxonomy include: missing data patterns, mechanisms, and modeling frameworks; inferential paradigms; and sensitivity analysis frameworks. These are described in detail. A variety of concrete modeling devices is presented. To make matters concrete, two case studies are considered. The first one concerns quality of life among breast cancer patients, while the second one examines data from the Muscatine children’s obesity study.     

Chloride binding of cement-based materials subjected to external chloride environment – A review

This paper reviews the chloride binding of cement-based materials subjected to external chloride environments. Chloride ion exist either in the pore solution, chemically bound to the hydration products, or physically held to the surface of the hydration products. Chloride binding of cement-based material is very complicated and influenced by many factors, such as chloride concentration, cement composition, hydroxyl concentration, cation of chloride salt, temperature, supplementary cementing materials, carbonation, sulfate ions and electrical field etc. Four different types of binding isotherms, namely linear, Langmuir, Freundlich and BET binding isotherm have been proposed to describe the relationship between free and bound chloride, none of which can accurately express the relationships between free and bound chloride within the whole concentration range. Freundlich binding isotherm seems to be the most approximate one. However, some field data fit linear isotherm well. This may be ascribed to the leakage of hydroxyl ion. Many service life prediction models based on diffusion mechanism alone have been proposed during the past two decades. If chloride ion binding is not considered in the models, it underestimates the predicated service life.     

Wet oxidation pre‐treatment of woody yard waste: parameter optimization and enzymatic digestibility for ethanol production

Woody yard waste with high lignin content (22% of dry matter (DM)) was subjected to wet oxidation pre‐treatment for subsequent enzymatic conversion and fermentation. The effects of temperature (185–200 °C), oxygen pressure (3–12 bar) and addition of sodium carbonate (0–3.3 g per 100 g DM biomass) on enzymatic cellulose and hemicellulose (xylan) convertibility were studied. The enzymatic cellulose conversion was highest after wet oxidation for 15 min at 185 °C with addition of 12 bars of oxygen and 3.3 g Na₂CO₃ per 100 g waste. At 25 FPU (filter paper unit) cellulase g^?1 DM added, 58–67% and 80–83% of the cellulose and hemicellulose contained in the waste were converted into monomeric sugars. The cellulose conversion efficiency during a simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) assay at 10% DM was 79% for the highest enzyme loading (25 FPU g^?1 DM) while 69% conversion efficiency was still reached at 15 FPU g^?1 DM. Total carbohydrate recoveries were high (91–100% for cellulose and 72–100% for hemicellulose) and up to 49% of the original lignin and 79% of the hemicellulose could be solubilized during wet oxidation treatment and converted into carboxylic acids mainly (total carboxylic acids = 3.1–7.4% on DM basis). Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry     

Sexual behavior increases dopamine transmission in the nucleus accumbens and striatum of male rats: Comparison with novelty and locomotion.

Extracellular concentrations of dopamine (DA) and its metabolites dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) and homovanillic acid (HVA) were examined concurrently, using in vivo microdialysis, in the nucleus accumbens and dorsal striatum of sexually active male rats during tests of locomotor activity, exposure to a novel chamber, exposure to sex odors, the presentation of a sexually receptive female, and copulation. DA increased significantly in the nucleus accumbens when the males were presented with a sexually receptive female behind a screen and increased further during copulation. Although DA also increased significantly in the dorsal striatum during copulation, the magnitude of the effect was significantly lower than that observed in the nucleus accumbens. In contrast, forced locomotion on a rotating drum, exposure to a novel chamber, and exposure to sex odors did not increase DA significantly in either region. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Immune and Anticancer Responses Elicited by Fully Synthetic Aberrantly Glycosylated MUC1 Tripartite Vaccines Modified by a TLR2 or TLR9 Agonist

The mucin MUC1 is overexpressed and aberrantly glycosylated by many epithelial cancer cells manifested by truncated O‐linked saccharides. Although tumor‐associated MUC1 has generated considerable attention because of its potential for the development of a therapeutic cancer vaccine, it has been difficult to design constructs that consistently induce cytotoxic T‐lymphocytes (CTLs) and ADCC‐mediating antibodies specific for the tumor form of MUC1. We have designed, chemically synthesized, and immunologically examined vaccine candidates each composed of a glycopeptide derived from MUC1, a promiscuous T_helper peptide, and a TLR2 (Pam₃CysSK₄) or TLR9 (CpG‐ODN 1826) agonist. It was found that the Pam₃CysSK₄‐containing compound elicits more potent antigenic and cellular immune responses, resulting in a therapeutic effect in a mouse model of mammary cancer. It is thus shown, for the first time, that the nature of an inbuilt adjuvant of a tripartite vaccine can significantly impact the quality of immune responses elicited against a tumor‐associated glycopeptide. The unique adjuvant properties of Pam₃CysSK₄, which can reduce the suppressive function of regulatory T cells and enhance the cytotoxicity of tumor‐specific CTLs, are likely responsible for the superior properties of the vaccine candidate 1 .     

On information and communication technology and production cost in construction industry: evidence from the Netherlands

The interplay between information and communication technology (ICT) and the competitiveness of construction firms is considered. More specifically, the question is whether firms that invest in information and communication technology have a production cost advantage. The economics literature hypothesizes that ICT brings about a production cost advantage, as ICT brings flexibility and improves the planning, organization and control of work. To test this proposition for the construction industry, a production cost function allowing for the inclusion of ICT is formulated. Using statistical nearest-neighbour matching methods it is possible to identify the effect of ICT on production costs thereby controlling for economic moderators. Data from a sample of Dutch construction firms reveal that those firms that installed ICT capital do have a production cost advantage. The results indicate further that firms need a minimum level of ICT capital to fully benefit from its production cost advantage.     

Evaluating the effectiveness of a post-license education program for young novice drivers in Belgium

The disproportionately large number of traffic accidents of young novice drivers highlights the need for an effective driver education program. The Goals for Driving Education (GDE) matrix shows that driver education must target both lower and higher levels of driver competences. Research has indicated that current education programs do not emphasize enough the higher levels, for example awareness and insight. This has raised the importance of insight programs. On the Road (OtR), a Flemish post-license driver education program, is such an insight program that aims to target these higher levels. The program focus is on risky driving behavior like speeding and drink driving. In addition, the program addresses risk detection and risk-related knowledge. The goal of the study was to do an effect evaluation of this insight program at immediate post-test and 2 months follow-up. In addition, the study aimed to generalize the results of this program to comparable programs in order to make usable policy recommendations. A questionnaire based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was used in order to measure participants’ safety consciousness of speeding and drink driving. Moreover, we focused on risk detection and risk-related knowledge. Participants (N = 366) were randomly assigned to a baseline—follow-up group or a post-test—follow-up group.     

Evaluation of DNA extraction methods for Bacillus anthracis spores spiked to food and feed matrices at biosafety level 3 conditions

The DNA extraction efficiency from milk, whey, soy, corn gluten meal, wheat powders and heat-treated corn grain that were spiked with Bacillus anthracis and Bacillus thuringiensis spores was determined. Two steps were critical: lysis of the spores and binding of the free DNA to the DNA binding magnetic beads in the presence of the interfering powders. For the guanidine-thiocyanate based Nuclisens lysis buffer from Biomerieux we found that between 15 and 30% of the spores survived the lysis step. As most lysis buffers in DNA/RNA extraction kits are guanidine based it is likely that other lysis buffers will show a similar partial lysis of the Bacillus spores. Our results show that soybean flour and wheat flour inhibited the DNA extraction process strongest, leading to unreliable DNA extractions when using too much of the matrix. For corn gluten meal, heat-treated corn grain and milk powders, DNA extraction efficiencies in the presence of 100mg and 10mg of powder resulted in 70%-95% reduced DNA recoveries. The inhibition was, however, reliable and intermediate compared to the inhibition by soy and wheat. Whey powder had the lowest inhibitory effect on DNA-extraction efficiency and recoveries of 70-100% could be reached when using 10mg of powder. The results show that reducing the amount of matrix leads to better DNA-extraction efficiencies, particularly for strongly inhibiting powders such as soy and wheat. Based on these results, a standard protocol to directly isolate DNA from micro-organisms present in complex matrixes such as food and feed powders was designed.     

On-line monitoring of fatigue cracks using ultrasonic surface waves

During the last decade many techniques were developed to detect fatigue cracks, and estimate their location and size. Unfortunately, most of the currently available nondestructive testing methods are off-line: the operational (or fatigue) loading and the inspection are considered as two distinct stages. Mostly, the loading should be released before inspection can take place, and sometimes the device under test even has to be disassembled. In this article, an experimental methodology based on ultrasonic surface waves will be developed to continuously inspect a structure during its operation. The proposed method uses spectral information of transmitted surface waves at several working points of the operational load. Simple statistical indicators of the transmitted wave energy during loading are introduced in order to be able to monitor the structural health on-line. As a validation experiment, a propagating fatigue crack in a sinusoidally loaded beam will be considered. In addition, a comparison with an off-line method is made, showing that the on-line method is also much more sensitive.